Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George presented a D.C.- version of the Green New Deal, one that would limit climate change by creating mixed-income public housing, as well as remove lead pipes and expand the lead remediation workforce to service homes. 

George introduced two separate bills on Tuesday, both ambitious and inspired by the national Green New Deal framework. Her bills aim to center vulnerable communities that are most impacted by climate disaster and emissions. Her housing legislation already has the support of five other councilmembers — one vote shy of the majority needed to pass.   

“Climate change is not something in the future. It is now. Our planet is dying,” said George, at the steps of the Wilson Building. She was joined by advocates of various groups, including Empower DC and the local chapters of the NAACP, the Laborers’ International Union of North America, Sierra Club, and Sunrise Movement.  

The first bill, titled “The Green New Deal for Housing Amendment Act of 2022,” would create the city’s first “social housing,” which is public housing for both working and middle-class people. Popularized by European cities like Vienna, the idea is for higher-income, market-rent tenants to subsidize their neighbors who are lower income and live in designated affordable units. Because this type of housing is publicly-owned, the government has more control and sets the rent rates. George said D.C.’s social housing would allow for tenant boards to review and authorize property management contracts and community rules.

Most energy in the District is consumed by buildings, with residential buildings accounting for 28% of total consumption in 2015. George said strong environmental standards are at the center of her social housing proposal, along with fair labor practices. New developments will be built to net-zero emissions standards, and older properties will be retrofitted to become more energy efficient. Properties will rely on solar power to the maximum extent possible, as well as the minimal use of off-street parking. Buildings will be near public transit whenever possible.

The legislation does several things to achieve its mission. It creates a new agency that will be responsible for constructing, maintaining, and expanding social housing. To the extent practicable, the unit composition will be split into thirds: one-third of units at a social housing building will be extremely low income (or for households earning less than 30% of the area median income), one-third will be very-low income (or for households earning between 30% and 50% of AMI), and one-third will be market rate (or at prices necessary to achieve rent cross subsidization). George envisions partnering with companies to develop social housing.

George and her team identified several sources of funding, including the Housing Production Trust Fund and DC Green Bank. It’s her expectation that social housing will be more competitive than existing projects vying for Trust Fund dollars. The bill will also create a “special purpose revenue fund” for rents paid at occupied social housing buildings.

George’s staff teamed up with former at-large candidate Will Merrifield, who champions social housing, to write the bill.

“Our housing policy in D.C. is dictated by developers and their investors. And who are the investors? They are speculators. They are Wall Street hedge funds. They are sovereign wealth funds. They are investment bankers, ” he said at Tuesday’s event. “What this bill does and what’s so profound about this bill is it creates a clear alternative to that model because we see what that model gives us. It gives us land speculation. It gives us skyrocketing rent and gives us mass displacement in Washington D.C.”

Daniel Aldana Cohen, a sociology professor at UC Berkeley who led the research for New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, called George’s bill “smart, exciting, and innovative.” He says he only knows of European cities — like Berlin, Paris, Vienna (which has been ranked the best city in the world to live in) — to use social housing to drive local clean energy transitions. One way social housing can be eco-friendly is by using concrete made with hemp for construction, he says, which lowers the carbon footprint of developments. 

“In the United States, there’s some pathbreaking green affordable housing construction. But these projects are hard to build, because most American affordable housing is built with unwieldy tax credits that are a bit of a logistical nightmare, and are increasingly inefficient,” he tells DCist/WAMU. “A social housing agency focused on affordable, economically sustainable, green housing would bring the best practices in European and American affordable housing, and green construction, to DC.”

The second bill would accelerate the removal of lead service lines at public and private properties. D.C.- owned or – leased buildings would have to remove lead pipes by 2028, while private properties will have until 2030. George said her bill achieves these deadlines by requiring landlords to participate in the program, empowering tenants to file a private right of action against their landlord should they not, increasing financial help for voluntary removal, and creating jobs that would service homes. She sees the jobs component of her bill, which would rely on a unionized workforce, as complementing At-Large Councilmember Robert White’s jobs guarantee program.

“D.C. is currently on track to only replace 20% of known lead water service lines by 2030,” said George. “Lead removal is an urgent public health imperative.”

“We also know both the adverse health impacts and the burden of removing lead pipes fall hardest on Black and Brown residents in the District of Columbia. [Streamlining] lead line removal is a racial justice issue,” she added.

George invited various activists to speak at the event, whom she credited for the creation of her Green New Deal, including 15-year-old Wei, a member of Sunrise DC.

“Being a climate organizer, it’s easy to fall into a pit of despair, to think that the work we’re doing isn’t effective,” they said. “But this bill shows that we are doing good work, that our voices are being listened to, and that the future is possible.”

George said to expect a Green New Deal on education. But the next immediate step is for her existing bills to have hearings with the environment, labor and housing committees. The chairs of those committees have not yet expressed public support for the bills. Councilmembers Robert White (at-large), Brianne Nadeau (Ward 1), Brooke Pinto (Ward 2), Charles Allen (Ward 6), and Trayon White (Ward 8) co-introduced the housing legislation.

“I want to make this a legislation that is unanimously supported by every single person on the council and by the executive,” said George. “This is [a] every single person on this planet Earth issue.”