A different world is not only possible, a different world is arriving today.
That's right.
The Green New Deal for public housing would immediately replenish
the multibillion dollar backlog for public housing repair repairs.
It would repeal the Faircloth amendment.
It would invest up to $234 billion over ten years to preserve, upgrade
and expand our public housing stock.
It would bring public housing down to zero carbon emissions
while creating 280,000 jobs in America.
Yeah.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders introduced
a Green New Deal for housing today, which, if passed, would make sweeping changes
to our public housing system.
According to the Guardian, the Green New Deal for Public housing aims
to decarbonize all of the nation's public housing units and build more of them,
with an investment of between 162 billion and 243 billion over the next decade.
In doing so, it would avert 5.7 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions,
the equivalent of removing 1.26 million cars from US roads each year while
creating jobs and public health benefits.
The proposal has already received endorsements and public support
from groups like the National Low Income Housing Coalition,
the center for Popular Democracy Action, the Alliance for housing Justice
and many more advocacy groups and unions.
In a statement, Senator Sanders said, in these difficult times, we must move
forward boldly to address the systemic and existential crises facing us today, and
that includes urgently combating climate change and making sure every American
has a safe and decent place to call home.
It is unacceptable that on a given night in America,
over 650,000 people are homeless.
It is unacceptable that in the richest country in the history of the world,
people are choosing between paying rent and putting food on the table.
It is unacceptable that our nation's public housing is in a state of chronic
disrepair and energy inefficiency.
After generations of government neglect, it is unacceptable that we have not done
more to transform our energy systems, our communities and our infrastructure away
from fossils and toward renewable energy.
Now, the AOC and Sanders proposal, while it's unlikely to pass, comes at a moment
where President Biden is making housing costs part of his reelection platform.
He recently called for $10,000 tax credits for first time home buyers
and other measures with the intent of lowering housing prices and rental costs,
but government action on housing is sorely needed.
Dharna Noor and the Guardian points out the bill's
reintroduction comes comes at the.
As the nation faces an unprecedented shortage of affordable housing in 2022,
a record half of all Americans spent more than 50% of their income on rent.
A January report from Harvard University found public housing remains an affordable
option that 1.7 million Americans rely on.
But amid a chronic lack of investment, it is often allowed
to fall into disrepair, creating a maintenance backlog of 70 billion.
Now, this bill would eliminate an impediment
to federal action on public housing.
And that's the 1998 Faircloth Amendment, which prohibits the government
from spending federal funds to construct new public housing.
This bill would completely repeal that amendment.
This is exciting, but you have to acknowledge there are impediments
and it probably will not pass.
But, Jake, I'm curious when you think about this and you think about the story
we talked about yesterday, potentially phasing all cars to EVs, those would
have huge impacts for the climate while making our society better for everyone.
Are you optimistic? Are you cynical?
What do you think of this bill?
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I love it.
And, number one reason is they're doing something.
Yes, like we asked Democrats and specifically progressives.
Hey, just because the Republicans have the House doesn't mean that you
should sit on your hands and do nothing and and try to pass nothing.
Now, what I would slightly prefer is to pick an issue that we can win on
even in these two years, and if either we win on it, or we embarrass the Republicans
and point out that they're against not just the average American,
but even their own voters.
And that's why I always use paid family leave as an example,
because 84% of the country wants it and 74% of Republican voters want it.
So that's my ideal. But barring that, this is great.
This is an excellent second option because this is how the Green New Deal started.
And it started as an idea and a and a proposal, which then gained steam.
And then eventually some portions of it were included
in the Inflation Reduction Act.
And and that began to make a difference.
So now on the issue, there's a second reason why I love it.
Because the issue of. Housing is the right issue.
That's a monumental issue that politicians, up until very recently
were not addressing at all.
And housing has become completely, utterly
unaffordable for millennials, Gen Z, etc.
And so they're asking for some sort of action and for progressives
to take action on that is perfect.
So I think Biden's proposals are good because they talk about getting a price.
Price of housing lower right now, in terms of public housing,
I think that has a great number of, parts that are helpful because,
look, guys, think about it this way.
We build public housing a long time ago, and, it helped in getting all those
folks homes, but it had some downsides.
We built some of them wrong, and it concentrated poverty,
which then led to some degree of crime.
ET cetera. ET cetera.
But we learned those lessons, and we changed how we were doing it.
And we were setting up public housing.
And I remember this because I'm ancient, and I remember covering
the Faircloth amendment and all of that.
And we had just actually switched to a system that was much, much better.
And they had learned how to build public housing
so that it did not create those problems.
I don't know that they were going to be perfect, but a bunch of them did come out
and were much better than the old, public housing projects.
Right?
So but then they cut all the funding in 99 because it wasn't going to rich people,
so nobody wanted it in Congress.
And at that point, corruption had already become 100% in D.C..
And guess what's happened since 1999? Homelessness has exploded.
So there's a number of different factors, including, of course,
Reagan shutting down the hospitals.
There's a million factors that went into it.
But the fact that there was no more public housing that was affordable for people
was a giant factor in rising homelessness.
So now Republicans turn around and go, oh, can you believe
all the homeless around here?
Well, then great, we have a Green New Deal on housing for you where we
can actually build affordable housing.
So we'll at least reduce those numbers.
And of course, you know what the Republicans are going to say.
Hell no, that doesn't help my incredibly rich real estate donors.
So that just helps the average American. So I'm not in favor of it.
So that's how it's going to go.
That's why it's viewed as like, oh, look at these progressives with
something bold and totally unrealistic.
Why is it unrealistic when it makes perfect sense?
And if you put it to the American people, it would probably pass.
It's unrealistic because the donors aren't going to allow it.
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