EastLake Tenants Union

Ant is one of our leaders in the Takeover 🏆 Over the years he’s stood strong for the community, helping organize and fight so our people have a place to call home. Now, as he gets older, Ant needs us the same way we’ve needed him.

He is currently in urgent need of a caregiver — someone who can provide live-in care or assist him day-to-day so he can remain safe, supported, and housed.
The Takeover has always been about community showing up for each other. 🤝🏾 Let’s do that for Ant.

Support the movement and help us get Ant home.
Donate using the link in our bio. ❤️

Slim out trying Vietnamese food for the first time. 🍜

This moment came right after 7748 was ordered to vacate — the City of Chicago forced tenants out, calling the building “unsafe.” Just like that, Slim and others were pushed back into the uncertainty of the streets.

So Shanna took Slim out for lunch. Not just for the food, but to give him a moment to breathe, to cope, and to process the new reality he’s facing.

Even in the middle of displacement, community shows up. 🖤

Meet Slim. 24. Boston born, but the Eastside where he grinding now.
Every day he putting that work in — making sure there’s a roof over his head and his people’s too.
He ain’t waiting on no handouts.
Slim making it happen. 💪🏾🔥

Honoring Jesse Jackson this Black History Month 🖤
Jesse Jackson was a pivotal organizer in the 1965–1966 Chicago Freedom Movement, focusing on ending housing discrimination and economic injustice.
✊🏾🖤

Honoring Dorthy Gautreaux this Black History Month 🖤
Dorothy Gautreaux was a civil rights activist and community organizer who fought for housing equality in Chicago.
She was instrumental in winning class-action lawsuits against the Chicago Housing Authority for unjust public housing practices, including segregation. The Gautreaux Program, named after her, was a nationwide initiative that desegregated public housing and improved the quality of life for program members.
✊🏾🖤

It’s Official The Eastside Takeover: Raised Not Raided / Levantados No Atacados campaign is HERE!

In South Shore — Over East — tenants are rising together to reclaim their power and take over the very buildings they call home. While abandoned properties sit vacant and real estate vultures let them rot for profit, families in our community are still in need of safe, stable housing. When buildings decay, it’s the tenants who suffer most.
But through this official launch campaign, residents are standing firm. Their roots are planted deep here — raised here. Alongside their immigrant brothers and sisters, they remain protected, not raided. United, organized, and unafraid, the Eastside tenants are rising up, not raided!

Follow and Supoort the Takeover, tenants, roses from the concrete, asserting their rights, repurposing these neglected buildings and transforming the community.

Honoring Marion Stamps this Black History Month 🖤
American community activist who fought for equal rights of public housing residents in the Cabrini-Green housing project on the Near-North Side of Chicago, Illinois.
✊🏾🖤

Honoring Hazel M. Johnson this Black History Month 🖤
Hazel is known as the “mother of the environmental justice movement.” She fought against toxic waste in Chicago’s Altgeld Gardens and successfully urged for federal recognition of environmental racism. Her work and legacy is continued through her daughter at PCR Chicago
✊🏾🖤

Celebrating Black love and Black culture through the classic film Love Jones. 🎬✨
Did you know this iconic 90s romance was filmed on location in Chicago, a city that became a powerful center for Black art, literature, and music during the Great Migration? From Bronzeville’s rich legacy to the spoken word scene that inspired the film, Chicago has long been a heartbeat of creative expression.
Black history is love stories. Black history is poetry. Black history is culture. 🖤

Love in Chicago means showing up.
It means protecting our homes, standing with our neighbors, and refusing to be silent.

Be our Valentine ❤️
Support the East Side Takeover.
Every donation helps us fight for safe, dignified housing.