New Report Details Ocasio-Cortez’s Two Housing Bills Would Deliver 235,000 Affordable Homes and 31,000 Jobs a Year to New York

Press Release

Joint research from The Action Lab, NYU Urban Democracy Lab, and the Climate and Community Institute finds that the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act and the Homes Act would solve New York's housing crisis while creating tens of thousands of union jobs

New York, N.Y. - A major new report released today by The Action Lab, New York University's Urban Democracy Lab, and the Climate and Community Institute makes the case for innovative Federal programs to help solve New York State's deepening housing crisis and generate sustained economic growth.

The report, A Federal Solution to New York's Housing Crisis: The Case for the Green New Deal for Public Housing and the Homes Act, analyzes two pieces of federal legislation sponsored by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) -- the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act (GND4PH) and the Homes Act -- and finds that together they would deliver 235,000 units of permanently affordable housing across New York State and create 31,000 jobs annually, including more than 17,000 in union construction.

New York is in a full-blown housing crisis. More than half of renters across the state spend over 30% of their income on housing. One in five households faces a severe cost burden, spending more than half their income just to stay housed. New York's public housing authorities outside of New York City carry a $41.7 billion and growing repair backlog -- a deferred crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of residents in substandard buildings. The private market and existing subsidy programs have not solved the problem. This report argues they cannot.

The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, sponsored by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), would invest up to $4.3 billion per year in New York State for green renovations of public housing. Over ten years, that investment would rehabilitate 126,000 units and create up to 14,000 jobs annually -- more than 7,000 of them in union construction. The work would include deep retrofits: replacing broken heating systems with electric heat pumps, remediating toxic mold, installing rooftop solar, and bringing buildings into climate compliance.

The Homes Act, sponsored by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Tina Smith, would create a new federal Housing Development Authority (HDA) to build and preserve social housing across the country. New York State would receive approximately $3.4 billion per year, financing 109,000 units of permanently affordable housing over ten years and supporting over 17,000 jobs annually, including 10,000 direct union construction jobs. Nearly two-thirds of those units -- more than 68,000 -- would be built in communities outside New York City, with funding flowing to upstate cities, Long Island, and regions where affordable housing is scarce and cost burdens are high. In the Syracuse metro area alone, nearly half of all renters are cost-burdened.

"As healthcare and housing are under sustained attack by this administration, we must recommit ourselves to truly investing in solutions to environmental health issues and community displacement. The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act and the Homes Act are complementary pillars of a new federal housing development agenda. Together, they would repair existing public housing, build and preserve permanently affordable social housing, create tens of thousands of good jobs, reduce emissions, improve public health, and move New York toward a housing system that better serves our communities," said Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

"This report demonstrates that there is nothing inevitable about New York's brutal housing and jobs crises. The federal government can and should pass these two bold pieces of legislation, which will create hundreds of thousands of homes and tens of thousands of jobs in New York alone. Tenants and workers deserve a government that centers their families' needs, and uses the power of the state to create safety and opportunity for the many instead of enacting policies that facilitate the obscene accumulation of wealth and power for the very, very few," said Andrew Friedman, Senior Director of Strategy at The Action Lab.

A central argument of the report is that the housing crisis and the jobs crisis are the same crisis. In New York, 44% of home healthcare workers, 39% of truck drivers, 33% of retail workers, and 19% of teachers are cost-burdened. These essential workers keep the state running -- and they are being priced out of the communities they serve. The jobs created by GND4PH and the Homes Act would employ workers in these same communities, building housing they themselves could afford.

"New Yorkers deserve to live in beautiful housing that they can also afford. For so many families, the only way they can get housing that's affordable is if it's falling apart. New Yorkers shouldn't have to settle. These two bills create hundreds of thousands of beautiful homes across the state that people deserve to live in. The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act and the Homes Act are the pillars of a federal progressive building agenda that expands and preserves the supply of permanently affordable housing," said H. Jacob Carlson, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Kean University.

The report also directly addresses a recurring tension in housing policy debates: the perceived divide between social housing advocates and public housing advocates. The report defines social housing as permanently affordable, removed from speculative markets, democratically controlled by residents, and supported through public administration -- and argues that public housing is, and has always been, social housing. Neither bill can address the crisis alone; together, they constitute complementary pillars of a comprehensive federal housing development agenda.

The report contrasts this agenda with existing tools like the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which produces housing with time-limited affordability restrictions and results in a net loss of permanently affordable units over time, and PACT/RAD programs, which have transferred public housing to private managers and in some cases raised rents on tenants. The GND4PH and the Homes Act would build housing that stays affordable permanently -- not for 30 years, but forever.

The full report is available here.

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