Puget Sound Sage

Transformation starts at the local level. 

Neighborhood by neighborhood, building power across our cities and towns, we can spark transformation at the national level. 

We know that those closest to the problems are closest to the solutions. That’s why, in 2001, a coalition of labor, faith and community organizations came together to form Puget Sound Sage to ensure that housekeepers and hotel workers in the region were not only getting good wages and benefits, but also had access to safe, affordable housing close to where they worked. 

Abdi Yussuf, Puget Sound Sage's Equitable Development Organizer, works with community members to prepare and build a community-led Graham Street Neighborhood Vision for when the new light rail station arrives in 2030

For the past two decades, Puget Sound Sage has bridged communities most impacted with decision-makers to achieve true co-governance through policy research and analysis, coalition building and advocacy, and community leadership development. Our mission is to chart a path to a living economy in the South Salish Sea and Duwamish River Valley regions by developing community power to influence, lead and govern. 

We build people power by:

1.) Growing a Living Economy 

A Living Economy is an environment where natural resources are renewable and people's labor is cooperative and all of the things a community needs are controlled and governed by everyday people: like housing, schools, farms and food production, local governance structures, art and culture, healthcare and healing, and transportation. We accomplish this by demanding that our city and county budgets devoted to policing and incarceration be directed instead to housing, transit, education, recreation and all the things that truly keep us safe.

2.) Moving away from extractive systems

We develop public policy and infrastructure that gives community control over systems that have historically been abusive and extractive. These systems look like: corporate landlords and private equity firms, fossil fuel companies, and private investor-owned utilities that prey on low-income communities and communities of color. Instead, Puget Sound Sage is shaping developing public policy and programs that give community control over land, energy, and infrastructure investments.

3.) Cultivating deep democracy

Deep democracy is critical to building a stronger and more just region. Through collective action and deep engagement, Puget Sound Sage trains emerging leaders of color to be appointed to local boards and commissions, builds the policy framework necessary to pass meaningful laws, and works alongside community groups to civically organize on the issues that most impact frontline communities. 

What we've won together:

• King County Council approving an Equitable Development Initiative! A community-led workgroup is now co-designing the county-wide program. Modeled off the success of Seattle’s Equitable Development Initiative (EDI), the King County EDI will invest much-needed funds into community-led land projects at all stages of the development process, including affordable housing, small business spaces, and cultural facilities.

• Winning long-term funding for Seattle's Equitable Development Initiative and Green New Deal! Through JumpStart, a one-of-a kind progressive tax on big business, we won over $400M in funding for climate and land justice projects over the next two decades.

• Building power for community stewardship of land through coalition organizing with our Community Real Estate Stewardship and Graham Street Community Action Teams
. Our goal is to stabilize local communities at high risk of displacement by taking hundreds of acres off the speculative market and into community ownership over the next decade.

• Keeping Washington's families connected to utilities throughout the pandemic by winning five extensions of utility shut-off moratoriums and a debt erasure program for low-income households served by Washington's energy investor-owned utilities.