🏡💚 Social housing for climate action
The last few weeks have been heartbreaking as we’ve witnessed escalating violence here in California and abroad. Our thoughts are with people in LA and with every community that is being targeted by ICE and state terror.
Amidst the tragic headlines, there was one story from this past week that I hope a lot of people saw. On Sunday, NPR released an in-depth article alongside a radio story for Weekend Edition that asked, Could this city be the model for how to tackle the housing crisis and climate change?
The city: Vienna. The model: green social housing.
Vienna has roughly 420,000 units of social housing, some that are fully owned by the city, and others that are subsidized by the government. About half of the city’s residents live in social housing.
Of course, one of the most celebrated consequences of this is how affordable housing is there, despite being a highly desirable place to live (winning the distinction of ‘the most liveable city in the world’ for three straight years). As highlighted in the NPR piece, the average 1-bedroom rent for social housing is $700, and they speak with one person living in a 4-bedroom social housing unit that costs $1,700 a month.
But the story goes beyond just affordability; for Vienna, social housing is a critical tool for its ambitious climate goals.
As I’ve written about numerous times before, one of the biggest challenges to equitably decarbonize buildings is what’s often called the ‘split incentives’ between landlords and renters. Renters who would benefit from energy efficiency and home retrofit upgrades don’t have control over decisions regarding their home. And since landlords don’t occupy these homes, the primary benefit they would get is in the form of increased property values — which they would secure through higher rents. As a result, home decarbonization comes with the threat of increased rents and possible eviction, since California allows evictions for ‘substantial remodels.’
While the ‘split incentive’ problem looms over all building decarbonization discussions here in the US, it’s not nearly as prevalent a concern in Vienna. There, the city is making an ambitious push to completely move away from climate-polluting natural gas by 2040, and it’s starting with social housing. Vienna council member Nina Abrahamczik describes it simply, “If you have these buildings, you can make choices regarding those buildings. One of the biggest advantages is that we have a bigger lever."
In a social housing system, the social goal of addressing climate change is not at odds with the private goal of landlords to increase their property value. The buildings and homes themselves become a social good that public policy can use to tackle pollution and carbon emissions, and ensure affordable housing for everyone.
The NPR story goes into depth about all the different and creative ways Vienna is tackling climate change: city-owned buildings are switching to large electric heat pumps; a massive geothermal energy project is underway; a new social housing “sponge city” development was built to prevent flooding and keep residents cool during extreme heat events.
One thing that is so inspiring about Vienna’s green social housing model is that they are able to leverage it to spur innovative design. Rather than just trying to build as cheaply as possible, Vienna uses their city-subsidized housing funding to create competitions between developers, with points awarded for things that align with city goals, including climate design and architectural beauty. In turn, these designs are influencing the private market.
This begins to reveal how truly transformative this model is. It’s not just about the units of green social housing, which are beautiful and affordable. But more than that: it’s about a system of housing that can drive social goals. The public sector can be on the cutting edge of innovation and design. Instead of subsidies leaking out into the private profits of a complicated system of actors and interests, those subsidies stay within the system to increase the affordability, quality, and ultimately the number of social housing units they are building.
Cities in the US are taking note. Chicago recently passed a Green Social Housing ordinance, and Seattle voters overwhelmingly voted to tax the rich to fund social housing. Legislators, advocates, and community members in California have been visiting Vienna for the past few years to learn and see it for themselves (GND Coalition trip, anyone??).
At the same time, I’ll acknowledge that some people feel that there is a little too much focus on Vienna, and not on other equally fascinating and inspiring models from other parts of the world (hello Uruguay’s system of co-ops). We also know that it’s not as easy or simple to just pick up a model elsewhere and plop it right down here. California has its own history, systems, and conditions that should be built on.
Still, I think it is important to look to places like Vienna for inspiration. While green social housing can sometimes feel like a utopian dream here, it is in fact a lived reality for people in the world right now. As with most of our societal challenges, the problem is not policy ideas, but political will. These are political choices we make to continue privileging a status quo that we know is unable to address the scale of the problem — whether it’s the housing or climate crisis. Stories like this show us the different choices we can make.
Beautiful existing green social housing. Source: NPR
For anyone in the Bay Area, I’ll be speaking on a panel being hosted by Dissent magazine about “Housing Politics and Climate Disaster.” Also featuring Moira Birss, who has done some fantastic research on a public model for home insurance, as well as Dissent editor Patrick Iber.
We’ll be at Clio’s Books (very cute bar near Lake Merritt) on Thursday, June 26 at 7pm (with food and beverages provided!).
WHAT WE’RE READING
Could this city be the model for how to tackle the housing crisis and climate change? (NPR) — read/listen to the story!
Green Social Housing: Lessons from Vienna (Climate and Community Institute) — new report from our friends at CCI going into greater detail on lessons from Vienna!
VIRTUAL TEACH-IN: Hands Off LA (Tuesday, June 24th, 6:30-8:30PM) - hosted by We Are California, to talk about what’s really happening in LA.
L.A. council eyes city-owned bank to fund affordable housing, small business and local services (Los Angeles Wave Newspapers) - public banking progress in LA!
Slumlord Millionaire: how landlords, politicians and developers are fueling the housing crisis (The Guardian) - review of new documentary detailing the housing crisis in New York
Feel free to reply any time! I always enjoy hearing from people and getting any feedback/questions/additional thoughts.
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