Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced sweeping legislation to overhaul the nation’s public housing stock that would cost up to $172 billion.
The duo has dubbed the legislation the “Green New Deal for Public Housing Act” and unveiled the proposal on Monday. The plan by the two self-described socialists seeks to transition the public housing system “as swiftly and seamlessly as possible” to zero-carbon communities that produce on-site renewable energy, according to a news release about the proposal.
They said the $172 billion would be invested over a period of 10 years and would affect nearly 2 million people living in some 950,000 public housing homes. The sponsors claim that the legislation would reduce the cost of water bills among public housing residents by 30% and would slash energy bills by up to 70% per year. It also would create about 240,000 union jobs, according to Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez.
The legislation, which is co-sponsored by Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, goes far further than President Joe Biden’s planned $2.3 trillion spending package, which includes about $40 billion to improve public housing infrastructure.
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“Just to address the backlog of critical maintenance repairs in [the New York City Housing Authority] and nowhere else, chipping lead paint, broken heating systems, failing gas utilities, would require $40 [billion] — what is currently in the American Jobs Plan,” Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, said about Biden’s proposal.
The left-wing legislation comes as some Democratic lawmakers have expressed a willingness to negotiate with Republicans about the scope of Biden’s infrastructure spending package. Republicans want to avoid a Democratic override of the filibuster but are also firm in the stance that they don’t want the package to be paid for with a 7-point hike in the corporate tax rate, as is proposed.
The legislation also seeks to repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which prevents any net increase in new public housing developments. It would additionally mandate those given funding to guarantee collective bargaining for workers and use materials in construction that are “substantially manufactured, mined, and produced” in the United States.
Given how much further the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act goes as compared to Biden’s proposed amount of spending on public housing and more centrist Democrats’ desire to gain Republican support, the $172 billion public housing plan will likely be a tough sell.
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“We’re here to make sure the Democratic Party upholds its values and keeps its promises and to also push and expand the scope and the ambition of the Democratic Party,” Ocasio-Cortez told the New York Times.
