Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders Unveil ‘Green New Deal’ for Public Housing

The bill would spend an estimated $162 billion to $234 billion over 10 years to improve and increase public housing while also converting it to ‘clean energy.’

Then-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) hold a news conference to introduce legislation to transform public housing as part of their Green New Deal proposal outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Nov. 14, 2019, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Progressives are reviving the Green New Deal moniker as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), and others announced a Green New Deal for Public Housing Act to revamp and revitalize the country’s public housing.

The legislation intends to “retrofit, rehabilitate, expand, and decarbonize the entire nation’s public housing stock” by spending an estimated $162 billion to $234 billion over 10 years in an attempt to both address America’s housing crisis and concerns over long-term climate impacts.