Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez Unveil $172 Billion 'Green New Deal For Public Housing'

Though unlikely to pass, the bill offers a glimpse of how a policy to slash climate-changing emissions can reduce poverty and racial inequality.

By Alexander C. Kaufman

Excerpt:

The bill, set to be introduced Thursday afternoon, calls for retrofitting the federally owned homes, improving energy efficiency, converting oil-burning furnaces and gas-fired stoves to renewable-energy electric alternatives, and replacing the lead-leaching pipes causing public health crises in cities across the country.

In much the same way that Sanders’s steady drumbeat for “Medicare for All” energized the U.S. movement for the kind of single-payer health care system that exists in much of the developed world, the public housing proposal could build a political constituency to revitalize a crucial source of affordable homes for the American working class. The effort comes as public housing units are a shambles, real estate prices are rising faster than wages in 80% of U.S. housing markets and homelessness has climbed for the past two years.

The legislation also shows for the first time how national policy to slash climate-changing emissions can reduce poverty and racial inequity by targeting long-term investments at largely minority communities, cleaning up sickness-causing pollution and creating demand for jobs that would go to local communities.

The legislation would help create nearly 241,000 good-paying jobs per year with provisions requiring union labor and U.S.-made materials for renovation projects. It would also create 22,300 to 36,000 career-track jobs in maintenance and construction, with average yearly incomes ranging from close to $70,000 in California to $61,600 in Georgia.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-green-new-deal-public-housing_n_5dcce14fe4b0a794d1fa7ffb