Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — Green New Deal for Public Housing Reintroduction

Speaker 1: My mom lived over 26 years, I've been five years old and now I was in college, and I was in college, and I was in college, and I lived on the college, and I really appreciate it, and I think it's been

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Speaker 3: there, and we've got a lot of people to talk to you, since it's been over there, and we've got a lot of people to talk to you since it's been over there, and we've got a lot of people to talk to

Speaker 7: you since

it's been over there, and we've got a lot of people to talk to you since it's been over there, and we've got a lot of people to talk to you since it's been over there, and we've got a lot of people to talk to you since it's been over there, and we've got a lot of people to talk to you since it's been over there, and we've got a lot of people to talk to you

Speaker 7: I'm checking you in, you really wouldn't laugh at me. - Excuse me. My

Speaker 8: portrait is blind. - That's all right, well thank you. Thank you so much. - You're

Speaker 7: welcome

Speaker 9: Okay, I'll see you next time. - Hi, yes, I'm curious

Speaker 10: I'm working around here too. - I'm working around here too. - Yes. - I'm working around here too. - We've gotten around here too. - I look differently, I guess

so

Speaker 12: I love

Speaker 10: your

Speaker 11: shirt. Thank you. We want a drink

Speaker 14: today. Thank you

Speaker 18: Hi

how are you guys

Speaker 19: I'm good, doing alright. I'm having a lot of time. Hi

how are you guys

Speaker 20: This is a great turnout. Is it

Okay, good. I'm really good

Speaker 20: Hi, I'm

pretty good

Speaker 20: Hi, I'm Jennifer

Speaker 21: Nice to meet you. I'm from the Center for Popular Democracy from New York. How are

Speaker 22: you? How are

Speaker 23: you? Good. Richard? Yeah

should we make a pair of karate

Speaker 26: I

Speaker 25: can't. Can y'all take a selfie with some cold-made mushrooms? Oh yeah! No

Speaker 27: no. I don't need to sit here. I don't need to sit here. I don't want to sit here. I don't want to sit here. Oh, who's up? Mushroom is good. Not me

Speaker 28: Oh! - I liked it, I liked

Speaker 29: it. - Yeah, a little bit

of a

Speaker 28: compliment. - Thank you. - Nice

Speaker 30: job. - Nice job. - Thank you. - I know how you're

Speaker 31: fine. - It is an amazing thing. - I was like, "That was great

Speaker 32: that's not a lot." - Thank you for coming. - This is our Injection Hale, the Executive Director of Alaska Seekstand, all the way up the line. - That's an important

Speaker 35: job. - Yay. - Now I'm dead. - Wow. We got to flip

Speaker 36: that. Yeah. Are you kidding me? Are

Speaker 38: you kidding me? But it's a step. Absolutely. I mean

we have people outside

Speaker 38: We have some food. We

Speaker 39: have some food. And we have some food. We have some food

W

Speaker 41: What's up, little one? - Hi. - Hi

Speaker 42: Hey, everybody. - Guys, this is great

Hi, guys

Speaker 42: Hi, guys

Speaker 44: Hey, Peter. - Anybody know this guy? - Yes, sir. - Hi, buddy. - This is

Speaker 46: calling. - Can I

get a

Speaker 46: selfie with you? - What's up, Mark's driving around with us

Speaker 48: Hey, what's up there? - Hey, hey, how are you? - Chairman of the Greens, Baltimore City

Speaker 49: Housing Authority, President. - How are you

Speaker 50: Good

All right

Speaker 50: You attacked Meteor. I gotta say, how good to you. - All right. - How are you doing? - Good to see you. - Good to see you

Speaker 52: All right, we

Speaker 50: ready to rumble

O

Speaker 50: Oh my God

Speaker 54: R

Speaker 55: Ready to go? - Ready to

Speaker 56: go

Speaker 57: All right

Speaker 56: Let's pull this up. - Oh, do we have Jameel? - Jameel, how are you? - How

Speaker 59: are you

D

Speaker 58: Do we have Delia here? Are we waiting on Delia

I

Speaker 60: haven't seen Delia

O

Speaker 61: Okay, all right, no worries. Okay

you ready? Oh, I

Speaker 62: don't know about that. Good afternoon, everybody. Good afternoon

Speaker 63: How's everybody doing today? It

is

Speaker 64: a

Speaker 63: beautiful sunny day in March

Woman 66: and it's a little cold, a little chilly, but we are here because we are reintroducing

Woman 67: the Green New Deal for public housing

today. I

Woman 67: want to thank everybody who's out here today. First and foremost, I have to give a shout-out to our New York 14 NYCHA residents who

Speaker 68 (higher-pitched voice): have bussed down from Queens and the Bronx. I want to give them a big round of

Speaker 69: applause

Our

Woman 67: overall NYCHA organizers that are here, New York City Public Housing, our general public housing organizers that are here, because this, they right here are why we are here today. The power of their

Woman 71: advocacy and the importance and dignity of their lives and all of our lives is why we are here today. because when they stand up and advocate for increased investments in public housing, they're standing up for all of us and this insane housing market that we are dealing with today. Every single one of us, most of us, are contending with the fact that we can barely afford housing, whether it's high rents, whether it's mortgages, whether it's inaccessibility to public housing and social housing stock as well. We

can

Woman 71: cannot access it and the lack of public housing inventory

Speaker 72: and investment in that is a big reason why i want to thank senator sanders

Speaker 68 (higher-pitched voice): for being here with us today as our senate co-lead i'm very excited to introduce a new co-lead representative delia ramirez we're adding chicago to the mix the city with the third

Woman 67: largest

Woman 71: public housing stock in the

united

Woman 71: United States. So we're partnering up from New York to Chicago to Puerto Rico, which has a very large public housing stock as well, to make sure that we not just invest in the capital backlog that public housing needs, but that we also create tons of good union jobs in overhauling our public housing stock and investing in the social infrastructure of our public housing as well

Speaker 75: On that

Woman 67: note, I want

to

Woman 67: to thank AFSCME, as a union who has endorsed the Green New Deal for Public Housing. Diane Yentl, the president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, as well. This is what movement building

Woman 71: looks like. When we first introduced the Green New Deal for Public Housing, a lot of it was constructed and written in partnership with residents of public housing. It includes things like expansion of section three, which we are talking about here

Speaker 76: in our housing authority. See, they know! They know 'cause they wrote it

Woman 67: They know 'cause they wrote it! Which means that when we talk about creating good union jobs in order to invest in NYCHA and public housing

Woman 71: across the country, in order to retrofit our public housing stock so it can be based on renewable energy sources produced on-site so that kids don't have to be exposed to increased asthma risk

so

Woman 71: that people can be able to live in healthy housing. But when we create those jobs in

Woman 67: doing that, those jobs are going to be good, they're going to be union, and NYCHA and public housing residents are going to have first at bat to get those jobs

Speaker 77: This is what

Speaker 63: self-sustaining community looks like

I

Woman 67: want people to imagine a different

Woman 71: world

We

Woman 71: do not have to accept this. We do not have to accept this world that we are living in now. We can imagine and we can achieve something new. Imagine waking up in your apartment. It's beautiful. It's affordable. You can raise a family in it. And you walk outside and there's a beautiful playground. And there's kids already playing in that playground

And

Woman 71: your children go out there and they are connected to a community. And you turn around the corner, and in that building there's a community center where seniors are preparing activities and that they're getting ready to connect with one another. And we walk out, and there's a barbecue on a Saturday, and your school is good, and the energy that powers your home isn't filling up your

lungs. that you

Woman 71: don't have to worry if the paint on the walls is exposing your kid to lead. The water that you drink is fresh and crisp. And all of this can be done without bankrupting ourselves. We

Woman 67: have to return to an era of rebuilding

public housing

Woman 67: in the United States. And we have to reject the idea that it's broken policy. What's

Woman 71: broken policy is the Faircloth Amendment

which

Woman 71: has banned the construction of public housing for decades. That's broken policy. What's broken policy is refusing to invest in our public housing stock for decades. That's broken policy. What's broken policy is only building housing stock that's designed for the wealthy and not for working and middle-class people. And what's broken policy is relying solely on the market and solely on billionaires in order to produce and extort everyday

Woman 67: people of every dime that we have in charging the highest rent possible. A different

Woman 71: world is not only possible, a different world is arriving today

Woman 67: The Green New Deal for Public Housing would immediately replenish the multi-billion dollar backlog for public housing repairs. It would repeal the Faircloth Amendment. It would invest up to $234 billion over 10 years to preserve, upgrade, and expand our public housing stock. It would bring public housing down to zero carbon emissions while creating

280,000

Woman 67: thousand jobs in America. It would end the era of government neglect, demolition, and privatization of our public housing stock. This bill also addresses unsustainable rent prices. In the Bronx alone, the Bronx, average rent prices grew by over 7% to an average of $2,391 just last year. But public housing isn't tied to the market. so by preserving and expanding it we can guarantee it to be affordable

Woman 66: it's the only housing stock that we can guarantee guarantee to be the most affordable but most importantly this bill would improve living conditions for the nearly one in 20 americans who live in public housing

Woman 67: one in 20

Of

Woman 67: the over 300,000 public housing residents living in New York alone, about 73 come

Woman 66: from marginalized backgrounds and 57% are elderly or disabled. They matter

our

Speaker 68 (higher-pitched voice): seniors matter, our elders matter, our disabled brothers and sisters matter, and we are sick and

Woman 67: tired of having them priced out of our communities and treated as disposable parts of society. They are the most essential parts of our society

Speaker 83: R

Right. And

Woman 67: with that, I just want to thank so many of our partners that are here today, and I want to hand it off to our Senate

Speaker 84: co-lead, Senator Bernie Sanders

Speaker 85: I

Speaker 84: want

Speaker 86: to thank Alexandria for her leadership on this enormously important issue and reiterate

the point

Speaker 86: that she made

Change is

Speaker 86: not gonna take place from there on down. Change is going to take place from the

Speaker 87: grassroots on up

Speaker 88: That's

right. And

Speaker 87: we need to mobilize millions of people to demand that every American has decent and affordable housing and at the same time, we address the existential crisis of climate change. And that is what this legislation does. So what we're talking about here is an understanding that if we do not get a handle

on

Speaker 87: the crisis of climate

Speaker 89: change, the planet that we are leaving, our kids and grandchildren, will become increasingly uninhabitable. We are not going to allow that to happen

And

Speaker 88: the second point

Speaker 89: we're going to make, you know, when I was a kid, growing up in a far and distant land of Brooklyn, I know it's not your territory, we didn't

live in

Speaker 87: public housing, but we lived in rent-controlled apartments

All

Speaker 87: right, which was a solid source of housing in New York City at that point. $75 a month is what we paid. But what we have got to do now in the midst of

Speaker 89: a massive housing crisis in the state of Vermont, in New York, in California, not only homelessness, but millions of people are

paying

Speaker 89: 50% or more of their limited income from housing, we are saying enough is enough. Affordable housing is a human right

That's right, Alex. It's a human right

Speaker 89: And what we're also saying is not only do we need jobs in America, we need jobs in America that pay people a living wage. That's right. So the good news and what Alexandria has done, what everybody here has done, What we have done together is put together a piece of legislation that addresses some of the major crises in America. We're going to stand up and transform our energy system and create sustainable housing not based on fossil fuels. We

Speaker 90: are going

Speaker 89: to provide decent quality affordable housing for millions of Americans and at the same time we're going to create good-paying union jobs. That is a win-win-win situation. Let's pass this legislation. Thank you all very much. Next up

Speaker 68 (higher-pitched voice): we have our house co-lead, freshman coming out swinging, Representative Belia

Speaker 93: Ramirez

Speaker 94: Chi-town is in the house and I'm like right next to New York here and I gotta be

Speaker 95: careful I

Speaker 96 (higher-pitched voice): gotta care from alone here good afternoon everyone it is a gorgeous sunny beautiful day to be with all of you as we all know what we've been chanting what we've been hashtagging and what we've been working on making housing a human

right I get

Woman 98: to represent Illinois' third congressional district, the district half of it is in the city of Chicago and the rest of it is in the northwestern suburbs, a district that, like many districts in our nation, are feeling the impact and lack of affordable housing and the urgent climate crisis

The

Woman 98: reality is that you and I both know that before the pandemic, the rent was too damn high and it was nearly impossible for most of our communities to ever purchase a home. What you have seen over the last few years is rent continuing to increase 20%, 20%, 20%. What we haven't seen increase is

Speaker 100: wages

Just

Woman 98: in Illinois, there's a staggering shortage of over 293,000 affordable homes. 10,431 people are experiencing street and shelter homelessness at any given day. In my district, more than 20,000 Latinos have been displaced since 2000. Families spending 50, 75% of their income of rent and utilities. Many of them doubled up and tripled up, and you know that according to our HUD definition, that doesn't technically mean homelessness by the number we see. So we know that the number of people at risk of homelessness, experiencing homelessness, is so much higher

Folks, the

Woman 98: time for both policy and transformative investment, as you heard from my colleague I love to say from New York City, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, That investment day is today. We need action to confront the systemic and environmental challenges displacing our families and threatening our communities. As someone who believes to my core that safe, stable, sustainable, resilient, affordable housing is a human right, I am excited to be here today. standing by the side of committed activists and

Speaker 102 (higher-pitched voice): leaders. You have been saying and doing this work. Let's start saying it again. - How we give the human right, fight, fight, fight. - That's right, that's right. So as she said that, I was standing there and thinking

Woman 98: I grew up as a little girl

uh

Woman 98: going to different protests and and chanting around affordable housing and you know we would go to places and you know we'd start our chat by saying our protests and our chance what do we want and then the people would respond

Speaker 102 (higher-pitched voice): affordable housing when do you want it now what do you want when

Speaker 103: do you want

Speaker 102 (higher-pitched voice): it now so why i share that with you is that i've been working on affordable housing for a very long time but i would be at other protests fighting for wages i would fighting for for immigration reform and when would

people

Speaker 102 (higher-pitched voice): People would say, "What do you want?" They would say, "Immigration reform." I'd say, "Affordable housing!" It was so instilled, it is so instilled in me, right? That I cannot hear the question, "What do you want?" I mean, even at home, I was like, "Affordable housing!" And I want it now. We know that we have been

Woman 98: working for this for a very long time. And it's why the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act of 2024 is here. It's transformative investment in housing. particularly public housing that goes above and beyond what we've seen before. It's an investment in clean energy economy that increases energy efficiency, it lowers costs for families, and it creates the good paying job opportunities we deserve. It's an investment in clean healthy future for generations to come with thriving communities and resilient cities. I want to end by saying to

Speaker 104: every young advocate here, and we're all young in our heart. Thank

Speaker 105: you, all of us. No, not you, I was looking at him, I

Woman 98: was looking at him. I want to say thank you. You know exactly what's at stake in this moment. You know exactly what we're experiencing every single day. And there are days that in this place, it may feel like we're not moving forward

But I

Woman 98: want to say to you, thank you, because you remind us that we cannot afford to give up, that this crisis is real. But you have chosen hope. You have chosen action. You have chosen to fight for our future and for each other. So to our activists, to our organizers, to

Speaker 106: our leaders, to our cities, thank you. Now let's get this bill passed

I

Speaker 108: mean

Woman 109: now you know why she's the co-lead on this, right? Delia is such an incredible champion on this. And I think it's important to send one message before we introduce our next speaker. Housing policy, and I wanna send this message very clearly, not just to all of Congress, but including to the leadership of the Democratic

Speaker 110: Party. Any housing platform, that does not include public housing is not

Woman 71: good enough

Speaker 111: That's right

Speaker 112: It's not

good

Woman 71: enough. And so there's no convenient forgetting here. Unless public housing is explicitly addressed, we do not have a housing plan. Not as a platform, not as a party. There is a lot of different things to address, social housing, mortgages, interest rates, but any true housing policy must include a commitment to public housing, point blank

Woman 67: period

With that

Woman 67: I'd love to introduce Representative Jamal Bowman. Good

Speaker 113: afternoon

Speaker 115: everyone

It's

Speaker 115: great to be here. Thank you so much, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, for inviting me. Thank you for your leadership and thank you to the activists. This is what policy-making is supposed to look like, y'all. It's not just about us coming here

Speaker 117: as individual representatives, elected officials, doing this work on our own. We have to do this work in conjunction, in collaboration

Speaker 115: and in alignment with people who have been doing this work their

entire

Speaker 115: lives so thank you

Speaker 118: thank you thank you for your organizing for your love and for your leadership housing

Woman 119: is a human right right housing is a human right the

rent is

Woman 119: too damn high y'all it's been too damn high for decades i lived in public housing I lived and was raised in public housing and rent controlled apartments. The minute a state law changed, my mother had to move out and lose her two-bedroom apartment and moved into a studio apartment in recently gentrified South Bronx, New York. And that is the story of millions of people across the country

And

Woman 119: my mother was lucky enough to be a union worker for the post office for 33 years. So she had a good enough pension to keep her in that studio apartment. But how many people aren't so lucky and aren't so fortunate and have been left behind by our elected officials for far too long? Too many. And that's why we have this unhoused crisis all over this country. It is... plantation capitalism to have someone paying 40, 50, 60% of their salary towards rent. That is plantation capitalism. Rent should be capped at 20% of someone's salary. That's where we need to take it. And as we rebuild our cities and as we rebuild our country to ensure that every

Speaker 117: single person has a home, we need to invest and pass the Green New Deal for public housing

It

Speaker 120: deals

Speaker 117: with the issue of unemployment and underemployment. It deals with the issue of the climate catastrophe that we are living in, and it deals with the issue of lack of affordable housing in our country. As the senator said, win-win-win

Woman 119: But I also want to plug, we must also pass the Green New Deal for public schools. Because the Green New Deal for public schools working in conjunction with the Green New Deal for public housing is a form of reparation for our historically marginalized communities. And as someone who has worked in public education for 20 years before running for Congress, housing. Stable, affordable, safe, clean housing impacts how our kids

Woman 121: learn in our public schools

Speaker 122: Housing is

Woman 121: health care. Housing is about self-esteem and self-worth and love and care for your community. When you feel that way, going to school, you're going to perform better in school. so Congress needs to get this done that's right and organizers please I know you already do this but I'm shouting out the millions of people who haven't been activated yet across the country organizing your local community organized at the city level county level state level to move legislation and money to invest in green

Woman 119: housing So thank you so much, my sister. It's an honor to work with you every day in this interesting place. And thank you to all the organizers for your love and care for our communities. Thank you all so much

Speaker 124: Incredible, incredible. Sorry, I don't know whose mic this is, but I'm trying to do my

Woman 67: best to fix it. Okay. All right, next

Speaker 68 (higher-pitched voice): up, I'd like to introduce Senator Peter Welch. We miss him in the House

Speaker 128: we miss him in the House

Speaker 127: Well, I gotta tell you, Eddie, Mark, and I are realizing all the fun you're having over here

You

Woman 129: got room for us to come back, Jamal. It's pretty good. You know, one of the themes that we've been hearing is housing is about community. You know, in Vermont

We have

Woman 129: the second-highest homeless population really per capita Unbelievable, and you know I think back Jamal you told your story when I first went to Vermont. I got out of law school I rented an apartment on the third floor of the tenement for 115 bucks a month

In a

Speaker 130: state that way my first job I was making $9,000 a month

A

Speaker 131: month

Speaker 130: You know, a

Speaker 131: week. No, no, no, a year. - A year, a year. - Those are the

Speaker 132: good ones, yeah. Well, you know

Woman 129: actually there's a funny story 'cause I got out of law school and I got a job offer on Wall Street and I got a job offer over here on K Street and I would have been making good money. I ended up on Bridge Street and White River Junction

Speaker 134: And it

Woman 129: was great, but the point is it was possible to make a choice to get a modest place to begin but we don't mind modest we want opportunity where it's step by step you're moving ahead not falling behind no matter how hard you work right that's right so no one's asking for anything but we just don't want to have a crushing boulder on our shoulder as we're trying to make our way and build and make our community our own contribution in the community

And

Woman 129: you know, what happens so often is that when it becomes impossible to afford just basic shelter, an apartment

or a

Woman 129: house, the blame starts getting focused on the people who can't afford it. I know. Isn't that right? Why don't you do something? Why don't you find, why don't you look harder? But in reality, you know what? There's a market at work. And I'm going to just give one example of the market that is at work right now and it is outrageous. You know who's buying up? All the homes in suburban neighborhoods, hedge funds

Speaker 137: They're not

Woman 129: living there. They're just buying it, putting the squeeze on, making it impossible for people to get their own home. And, by the way, have a transient neighborhood where those barbecues you're talking about, Alexandria, you just can't put them together. And you know what? All of us in our own way is doing everything we can to try to make the best of ourselves, be the best of who we can be. But part of that for each of us is to help our neighbor and our kids be the best that they can be. That does require stability

It

Woman 129: requires continuity, it requires commitment, it requires effort, but it also requires an affordable home, an affordable apartment. And when we've got a market that now caters to folks who can show up and pay cash and where hedge funds can come into communities and buy up every other house so that folks who want to build that community, where they coach Little League, where they have a community barbecue, where they have school plays that they go to and are proud to see. not just their own kid performing but they're thrilled to see their neighbor's child getting along and performing as well. That's what we want and that's at the heart of this legislation. We want community and we know in order to get it we have to have public policy that's going to address climate, that it's going to address housing, that's going to build in a way that's resilient and sustainable and efficient. This is within our power to do. And that's why all of you organizing, advocating from your personal experience and the deep, deep commitment you have to love one another. That's what motivates us. And that's why we will sustain this effort and why we will succeed. Thank you all for everything that you do

Speaker 139: Thank

Speaker 68 (higher-pitched voice): you, Senator Welch. And next up, we'll have our Green New Deal champion, the OG, Senator

Speaker 140: Ed Markey

Speaker 141: So this is such a great day. It's such a great

Speaker 142 (higher-pitched voice): day because

you know

Speaker 143: five years ago when Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and I introduced the Green New Deal. We said, "Well, you know, the planet's dangerously warming and we should do something about it." And then we said, "We should do something with wind and solar, all-electric vehicles, battery storage technologies to solve the problem." And then we added five more pages, which has

Speaker 142 (higher-pitched voice): been driving Fox News crazy for five years. Because we said, "Everyone has a right to a home." Everyone has a right to a good education. Everyone has a right to to health care. Everyone has a right to live in dignity. And then we mentioned those people who are left behind. Black, brown, indigenous, poor people in our nation who were left behind in the first New Deal. They just weren't seen. And so that's really what this is all about. This is

about a

Speaker 142 (higher-pitched voice): Green New Deal for public housing, for everyone. It's about a Green New Deal for public education, for

Speaker 143: everyone, so that everyone is able to maximize their God-given abilities, so that everyone is able to fully participate in the wealth

Speaker 145: of our nation. So, this is just an incredible day, because the Green New Deal unleashed a revolution, right a revolution that's never going away until we complete this mission of long overdue justice for absolutely every person within our country and the green new deal for public housing is going to deliver on all three counts a revolution of young people livable future for workers demanding jobs with dignity and communities demanding justice for everyone. So we're facing a housing crisis in the country that has only gotten worse. Public housing has been left to fall into disrepair, and new public housing has been blocked by outdated federal and state laws which have blocked it. from being constructed, rents are soaring, and so are the temperatures on our planet and in those communities especially. But the Green New Deal shows optimism, it shows opportunity. It's driving down emissions, retrofitting public housing, enabling us to build clean, new public housing designed by communities, not just for communities

we

Speaker 145: can fight climate change and our housing crisis at the very same time and by using union labor we can energize our local economies and support good jobs for everyone we're doing this in massachusetts at franklin park but But we just have to do it everywhere in our nation until we finish the job. Because a livable future means, above all, having a safe, clean and healthy place to live. We don't have to worry about luxury housing, that's going to get built. We don't have to worry about wealthy people, that's not our job. They've got lobbyists

Speaker 146: all over

Speaker 145: the hill

our

Speaker 145: activists, not agonizing but organizing, you know, the public, the public housing movement of our country. We thank you for everything that you're doing and we're just going to keep going until we

Speaker 147: finish the job. Thank you all

Speaker 148: so much

Woman 149: Thank you so much, thank you so much, Senator Markey. Next, we have one, I would say

Speaker 151 (higher-pitched voice): just one of the great gifts in terms of organizing and one of our great policy minds in the country on housing in general, Diane Yentl, the president of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition

Well, I'm

Woman 153: delighted to be here today with this incredible group of activists and this incredible group of congressional leaders and to thank them on behalf of the National Low Income Housing Coalition and our members and partners from across the country for their bold leadership and for these ambitious proposals to not only help preserve America's essential public housing infrastructure, but to modernize these homes to 21st century green standards and to make sure that the residents who live there benefit from green job and training opportunities. It is past time that we combat the affordable housing crisis and climate change, both of which severely harm the lowest income and the most marginalized households. And through innovative, holistic, and bold visions and proposals like the Green New Deal for Public Housing, Our nation can improve lives, ensure housing stability, and address climate change. Today, our housing and homelessness crisis is worsening. Across the nation, America's renters, the lowest income renters, are facing a severe shortage of homes that are affordable and available to them. Nationally, there's a shortage of 7.3 million apartments affordable and available to the lowest income renters. So another way of saying that same number is for every 10 of the lowest income families, there are fewer than four apartments that are affordable and available to them. But despite this critical need, Congress continues to chronically underfund solutions, including our essential public housing infrastructure. Congress has divested from public housing for decades, resulting in over $70 billion in unmet capital backlog needs. And as a result, our nation is losing 10,000 to 15,000 units of public housing every year to obsolescence or decay as other units fall into deep disrepair

So

Woman 153: at a time when our nation is struggling to address the severe shortage of rental homes affordable to people with the lowest incomes, Congress must take every action to preserve the affordable homes that we have, especially public housing, and we should build more

The

Woman 153: Green New Deal for Public Housing preserves this critical community asset for current residents and for future generations, and it helps prepare for and respond to the growing threat of climate change. So we're grateful for the leadership

Speaker 154: of the members of Congress that are here today, and we are beside you all the way to get it done. Thank you

Speaker 155: Thank you so much, Diane. Next, we are going

Speaker 68 (higher-pitched voice): to have the president of AFSCME Local 647, - Paul Wallace

Speaker 156: Good afternoon

Speaker 158: everyone

Speaker 159: Good afternoon, Paul

Speaker 158: My name is Paul Wallace. I'm

Speaker 160 (lower-pitched voice): currently the president of Aspen Local 647 in Baltimore City House, where I represent about 160 members. And just to piggyback off of what they're saying, a lot of my members used to live in public housing, and some of them still live in public housing. I'm here to probably announce that AXB, I'm here to announce AXB probably endorses the Green Act deal, the new Green Deal for Public Housing Act

We would like

Speaker 161 (lower-pitched voice): to thank Senator Sanders, Representative Ocasio-Cortez, and Representative Ramirez for leading this bill and all our allies that are here

today

Speaker 162 (lower-pitched voice): Nationwide actually has 1.4 million members. Actually, Maryland Council 3 has 25,000 members. working for the city, the state and county and public housing authorities and environmental agencies. We have about 10,000 AXP members working in public housing and a thousand more working green jobs to promote

a healthy environment. I

Speaker 163 (lower-pitched voice): am, my title really, I'm the president, but my title is maintenance technician

Speaker 162 (lower-pitched voice): I work on these houses. I'm proud. At first I didn't know what this job and what it meant, but I'm proud of the job that I do. I said because I'm an example to the kids that are in these poverty places that you can do better

Speaker 165: and that

Speaker 162 (lower-pitched voice): I'm here to help you in any way that I can. Our job is to provide, make sure that the houses are like we

Speaker 163 (lower-pitched voice): want to live in. And when I go in to repair, that's what I do. That's what my team does. That's what we promote

We meet the

Speaker 162 (lower-pitched voice): residents. We talk to contractors and vendors. We develop like a family. We become family to them

Speaker 163 (lower-pitched voice): And you know

so

Speaker 163 (lower-pitched voice): this green new deal is is great uh and i started i had to tell you i kind of briefly said that i've been working for

Speaker 162 (lower-pitched voice): housing for 36 years i currently come out of potomac job court here and i went into maintenance there and i've been there ever since and i don't think i'm going nowhere no time soon but i really love this job Because of the people, the kids, the seniors and things like that, they need our help. And there's a lot of people I see on the street that for whatever

Speaker 163 (lower-pitched voice): reason they're not able to get into these homes because it's not available to them or some

kind of

Speaker 162 (lower-pitched voice): flag or some kind of petition that prevents them from

getting

Speaker 161 (lower-pitched voice): there. Americans need this

bill

Speaker 161 (lower-pitched voice): There's increasing funding to repair, modernize

Speaker 162 (lower-pitched voice): and green American public housing. Like I said, when I come here, I first started off in landscape, and every year we were putting grass down. We were beautifying the neighborhoods and things of that nature. That's almost in with the waste. When you go in there, the dirt is almost like concrete. This green, they come outside, you know, they have to put down rubber playgrounds. Because there's no grass there. If they fall on the dirt, they can actually hurt themselves like they've fallen on concrete. So this Green Act

is

Speaker 161 (lower-pitched voice): essential. This building ensures families living in safe and decent affordable housing and it's family there for our

Speaker 162 (lower-pitched voice): kids and

Speaker 168: our grandkids. Advocates

Speaker 161 (lower-pitched voice): for housing environment, labor unions, and workers' rights are united to support this bill. We push to enact it with residents, union members, managers, and our broader communities and elected officials. We also work with President Biden And HUD leaders, housing, again, is a human right

Speaker 170: Right, right, right. It's a human right. And it's

Speaker 161 (lower-pitched voice): been put on the back burner for a long time, and it's time that we change things

We thank you

Speaker 161 (lower-pitched voice): and have

a

Speaker 163 (lower-pitched voice): blessed day

Speaker 171: Thank you

Speaker 172: Thank you for what you

Speaker 174: do. Thank

Speaker 173: you. Thank you

Speaker 155: Thank you

Woman 71: so much. Next I'm very very proud to introduce our next speaker, NYCHA organizer herself, a resident of

Speaker 151 (higher-pitched voice): New York City Public Housing herself, Jasmine

Speaker 176: Sanchez. Good

Woman 177: afternoon everyone. My name is Jasmine Sanchez and I'm a lifelong resident of public housing. I was born, raised and still reside in Baruch Houses, which is the largest public housing development in Manhattan with over 10,000 people and 2,200 units. Public housing gave my family an opportunity and a stable home when they came from Puerto Rico. But my grandparents were forced out of two apartments when they arrived here due to urban renewal and the burning of their building. So had it not been for public housing, I don't know where my family would have been

E

Woman 177: Everyone

Woman 178: deserves a stable home. Everyone deserves a home with clean water. Everyone deserves a home that is not falling apart. Everyone deserves to be invested in and everyone deserves to live threat free. Public housing residents face constant threats of privatization and conversions. After decades of disinvestment, we have seen our homes fall apart with repair backlogs that some folks feel will never get resolved. This sentiment of hopelessness is what prompts people to want to convert to RAD or PACT or privatize. No other solution is being presented when these conversations are happening with residents and that is where we need to start. The Green New Deal for Public Housing is the alternative to privatization. The Green New Deal for Public Housing is the alternative for any social housing plan. And the Green New Deal for Public Housing is the alternative to the trust. Rep AOC and Senator Sanders ensured in 2019 that this was a bottoms up approach with purpose, intent, impact and coalition building with residents, organizations and allies

And I

Woman 178: thank you because a lot of folks don't do that. So I appreciate that. This bill not only invests in each unit, but it ensures that we receive energy efficient appliances, that we have regulated cooling and heating systems, that we're

able to

Woman 178: generate our own power, but there is an investment in the actual tenant that no other piece of legislation has. The investment that they secure a job, a union job, which is one of the key tenements of public housing. So let's get back to that

this

Woman 178: bill focuses on older adults and ensures that their quality of life doesn't suffer due to lack of resources as they age in place and that our communities become a hub of resiliency because my community and communities that look like mine feel the ramification of climate change more harshly frontline communities in new york city that have historically borne the brunt of climate injustice are usually black, brown, and other low-income communities. We see heat waves, poor air quality, and extreme weather and climate events ravaged through poor communities without a second look. I live on the FDR Drive, I live by the Williamsburg Bridge, I live by the Con Edison Plant, and I live by the busiest highways in lower Manhattan. And this encompasses my development. We are boxed in. But I love public housing

My

Woman 178: unit has only been occupied by my family. With the increasing rents, public housing is the most stable stock of housing in the nation. So why wouldn't we develop more, invest more, and protect the units that we own more? My household saw two college graduates. This is to Rep Bowman's comment of stability and what you can become. Two college graduates, my sister from NYU with a degree there and I with a graduate degree from the CUNY School of Labor in urban studies you already know right three generations have lived in my unit this is not an isolated scenario i have witnessed this throughout my travel speaking to residents nationwide the first time this bill was introduced in 2019 and every year after that because i truly believe that this bill is the only way public housing will get what they truly deserve and i'll leave you with this Two of my fondest memories was when Papi, who was my grandfather, took myself and a neighbor's child downstairs in the middle of a snowstorm to play in the snow, creating snowballs, snowmans. I had a pink ski school, never went skiing, I don't know why I owned one, and my friend had a red, white, and blue one, but we got there and we were making snow angels. Another one, another memory I have, and it's the fondest one, me and the kids on the block running around

on the

Woman 178: lawn trying to capture lightning bombs. Right. And for me, this is important to say because these social networks are part of the fabric of public housing that create the life changing opportunities to its residents to engage and build long lasting, tight knit communities. The way we preserve our communities and social networks is by having a true investment in public housing so that people don't have to move. individuals that live there so that they don't have to get priced out and ensuring that our communities and developments become resilient so that in times of crisis

Speaker 180: we are prepared. I love public housing so let's pass a Green New Deal for public

Speaker 181: housing

Next

Speaker 182: up we have Shakia Kato, tenant at Reed

Speaker 183: Houses

Speaker 184: Hi, welcome

Speaker 185 (higher-pitched voice): Good afternoon

Speaker 184: everyone. - Good afternoon

Speaker 185 (higher-pitched voice): My name is Shakia. I am a, I'm so nervous, don't mind me. I

am a

Speaker 185 (higher-pitched voice): resident of New York City Housing for almost 40 years. Throughout my years of living in New York City Housing, the condition has been bad. We are often afraid

Woman 186: to speak up, 'cause we are afraid to lose our apartments if we do speak up

I

Woman 186: have a 16-year-old, soon to be high school graduate. Young men living in these conditions every day, as far as no heat. Working up having four or five blankets, trying to get warm for school the next day. That's not good. Working up with rodents, crawling in the area where you have to make a meal, and you're afraid to eat, but you have no other choice. It's not right. We need these funds. For us as a whole, for all races, not just African-Americans. We need these funds to raise our children. We need these funds to get better jobs. We're afraid to get better jobs because the rent is going to go up higher. So we live poorly, which is not fair. And our community, I live in downtown Brooklyn, they are building high-rises, higher than where

we live, and not give us

Woman 186: the opportunity that they have, which is pools, which

is

Woman 186: Security, because we don't live

safely in

Woman 186: our community. Every day you wake up is a

new day

Woman 186: but it's not a change. I pay a light bill, which is beyond what I make during the month, to have heat from portable heaters. What can I do? I want to stay warm. We fought for years asking, "When are you going to fix the boilers?" We don't have the funds to fix it

So

Woman 186: now we have the funds to fix it, let's fix

Speaker 187: it. It's

Speaker 185 (higher-pitched voice): not only in Brooklyn, New York, it's all over the U.S. that we live this way and

Woman 186: we are afraid

So, with

Woman 186: you guys today, hearing us out and hearing our stories, we ask you for help and we say thank

you from our

Speaker 188: bottom of our hearts because

we need it

Speaker 189: Thank you so

Speaker 190: much

Speaker 191: Shakia. Next, we have

Woman 149: Damario Cooper, the co-executive director for the Center of Popular Democracy

How you all

Speaker 193: doing? I don't know if these mics are going to pick me up from all the way up here, but my name is Damario Cooper. I'm from Akron, Ohio. I'm from a place in Akron, Ohio called The Bottom. And The Bottom was the bottom of a hill, but it was also the bottom of the economic system, and it was the projects. We grew up there. But what that place allowed was for us to have a relationship with our family. It allowed us to be able to grow. My sister and I, my mom was a single parent. She used that space and that stability to build our

life. We

Speaker 193: eventually, she eventually got a better job. And yes, the cliff caught her, and we struggled after she got that better job. But she was able to eventually move us into a house where we had a home. And my mom, she died at 51 years old, trying to jump a class level in this country. My sister and I are her legacy. And currently, I'm the co-executive director of the Center for Popular

Democracy. And

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): what the Center for Popular Democracy is, is a group of 51 affiliated organizations across this country that are power building organizations. Real people, actual people who have the audacity to believe that we belong here. We belong wherever

Speaker 195: we are

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): In this campaign, one, I want to thank you, Senator, because you are actually embodying the values and beliefs and principles and hope of people like my

mother. people who

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): believe that they have a right to be here

when we're talking about

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): green social housing we're not just talking about housing it's a great issue it's a good campaign but what we're actually talking about is real people's lives people's ability to raise their children in safe environments think about yourself think about your own life if you didn't have a stable environment to be raised in what

are the

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): conditions under which you become See, our opponents, they use this thing. They create stuff like the, what is it, the Faircloth Act, right? They do that. They defund our things, things that help us. And then they point to those things and say, look how they're not working. That's not working, right? That's what they do

But we're not

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): confused. We're not confused. We're not confused anymore. People put you in office because they weren't confused. People supported Senator Sanders because they weren't confused

Right. If

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): we're in a society where people are starting to wake up, right? Like we're in another awakening right now. We're in another awakening right now. People have been through too much. They are tired. We are tired

Enough is

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): enough. We

all know

Speaker 196 (higher-pitched voice): that it's impossible for you to think that a government in this day and age cannot create housing for everyone

It is

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): ridiculous to believe that more people are homeless today than they were 20 years ago. That's crazy. That's crazy. And then instead of fixing the problem, we have legislators trying to criminalize people who are stuck without housing. And they want us to pretend. They want us to pretend like people who don't have houses. It's their fault. I know people who don't have houses

who work. They

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): want you to believe that everyone who doesn't have a home is lazy because they don't care. That's what they want us to believe. But we know people who don't have homes who are working. If

we're going to become

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): the society that we actually can be

It's

Speaker 193: interesting. I'm sorry, because yesterday we were talking about the 2025 plan. And

I'm just like

Speaker 193: these people actually think that this is the right way forward

They

Speaker 193: actually believe. Our opponents actually believe that people should not have houses. The

Center for Popular Democracy

Speaker 193: and our affiliate

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): organizations, we believe that the power is with the people. And that there are enough people who believe that we should have a future where everyone has the ability to thrive. Where everyone should have a home. Where everyone should have a good job. And this opportunity right now does both of those things. That's right

It

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): doesn't only create a home where everyone can live that's low emissions, but it also creates jobs for millions of people. If you know someone, where I come from, the narrative to tell people that these people are not like you, that people don't think

like you

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): that if you were put in those same conditions that you would make different choices. I'm here to tell you that you probably wouldn't. You probably wouldn't make different choices to them. But if we give folks opportunity

If we

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): create legislation like the senators are creating

and then

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): we fight as people who have to deal with the conditions of not fighting, if we don't fight, then

we can create a

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): future where we all can thrive

Speaker 197: That's what we're

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): fighting for. We're fighting for our enemies to be able to thrive. We're fighting for the people who don't believe in us, don't believe we should have houses and jobs. We want

them to

Speaker 194 (higher-pitched voice): thrive because the only way we're going to have a future together is if we all work together. The only way that we are going to stay on this planet, the only way we're going to be on this planet with and have generations and generations of human beings coming is if we work right now to build the power

Speaker 196 (higher-pitched voice): necessary to force the folks in that building to do the things that help us thrive

That's right, that's

Speaker 196 (higher-pitched voice): right. - Thank you, appreciate

Speaker 198: it

Speaker 199: All

Speaker 200: right, there we go. Thank you so much to Mario

Woman 149: and to bring us home, we're going to have Israel Izzy Cuevas, the service coordinator for the Green City

Speaker 202: Force

Speaker 203: I'm

Israel

Speaker 204: Cuevas. NYCHA resident and service coordinator of Green City Force

Speaker 205: I am

Speaker 206: also one of the 700 young adults who are a graduate of the

Speaker 207: program more

Speaker 206: importantly when I am serving and I am working I am leading and overseeing

the

Speaker 204: training and development as well as service of the members at an urban ag eco-hub in Mariners Harbor, Staten Island, New York. And

when I think of the Green New Deal, I

Speaker 204: think of a new door of opportunities for young adults such as myself, graduates, And anyone who really wants to make a difference and change their lives and change the lives of others in public housing to be able to take the skills, take whatever it is that they are equipped with and be able to really pioneer a new era of change, of retrofits and overall improvement of our public housing areas

I myself grew up in

Speaker 204: public housing and I've dealt with bad air quality, I've dealt with not having heat, I've dealt with sometimes even not having power. With the new Green Deal, we'll be

able to have

Speaker 204: young adults, anyone who is equipped and certified and willing to serve

to be

Speaker 204: able to come into these spaces and improve the places that they're living

in. By other

Speaker 204: community members witnessing this, they can then learn and ask questions about what it is that we're doing. Moving forward, this will create a love where you live initiative and other community members can then step in. And now the community is being built and reformed by the community for the community

I myself served two

Speaker 204: AmeriCorps terms this site in Staten Island Mariners, Mariners Harbor, Staten Island and being able to be a witness to all the different things that are occurring, all the different injustices, all the different lack of resources that these communities were having was a real eye-opener and being able to serve alongside my team, the Green City Force staff, being able to give produce

for no

Speaker 204: extra charge just making sure that people bring in their food scraps having the community once again participate in our endeavors to be able to attack food justice and since we use those scraps to then use uh use it to make compost our food that we're growing is by the community for the

Speaker 209: community

i

Speaker 204: want to leave you guys with this i challenge everyone who's here today activists leaders everyone

to

Speaker 204: take your next step in your part and your role in making this new Green Deal equitable, sustainable, and comfortable

Speaker 210: for all public housing residents

Speaker 211: Thank you

Speaker 210: for this opportunity. Have a great day

Speaker 212: everyone. - Thank you so, so much. Thank you. - Please give

Woman 213: me a second. I want to speak a little bit as to why everybody here is important. But I wanna speak a little bit about the importance and significance of Israel being here today. Because what we've been able to propose in all of this is I think a lot of what you represent is the vision of all Green New Deal policy coming together. Because a couple years ago we introduced legislation to create and establish a civilian climate core so that young people could learn and develop the skills and jobs

in

Woman 213: caring for their community. And when we pair that with the Green New Deal for public housing, we create a pipeline of talent in order to invest

Speaker 214: in our community. That that climate core turns into a union job, turns into new landscaping

Woman 213: for our public housing. And what Israel does with the Green City Force, because we just signed in, and we just won in American Climate Corps last year, and we will expand it, but we've been able to already move ahead on the city level and build the NYCHA Climate Corps, the Public Housing Climate Corps. And what Israel does is that he helps public housing residents compost their food He helps them grow garden beds and teach folks how to grow their own food to lower their own grocery costs. And eventually we want to help people learn how to install solar panels on public housing and making sure that they don't have to rely on a boiler that's going to get flooded

Speaker 217: and turned out, but

that we

Speaker 217: can get that energy from the sun. So thank you so much Israel for

Speaker 199: your leadership and your service

Speaker 218: to our country. With

Woman 66: that, we'll open up for a brief Q&A, and then we'll head out for our day. Yes

One

Speaker 219: what would the impact -- I know there's a $30 billion backlog in New York

Speaker 220: for NYCHA. What would the impact, in your view, be on New York City specifically with this legislation? And then two, obviously Biden made housing part of his State of the Union

Speaker 221: fish. What do you make of what he proposed, and where does that fit in here? Of

Speaker 222 (higher-pitched voice): course. on the New York front of things This legislation was very much of

Woman 71: course, as all representatives do, very much inspired by home. Inspired by the opportunities that we have at home and inspired by the struggles that we have at home in public housing. Green New Deal for public housing will create tens of thousands of jobs in New York City alone. Those jobs would be union

Speaker 222 (higher-pitched voice): those jobs would go to NYCHA residents, and we would really start to transition away from year after year of dealing with broken boilers and no heat and then replacing the same old systems that break again to transitioning to new systems that particularly new energy systems transitioning our from our boilers to solar transitioning from gas to electric transitioning our appliances from dirt