The Green New Deal proposes a national and international mobilization to stop climate change, undertaken with all the gravity and urgency that the crisis necessitates.

But what makes it different from many past environmental efforts — and more likely to develop and sustain mass popular support — is not just its scale. It’s that the Green New Deal refuses to counterpose economic and environmental well-being. In fact, it explicitly makes economic justice a focal point. And there can be no economic justice without good homes for all.

In this spirit, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have just introduced the first infrastructure bill proposed under the Green New Deal umbrella. The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act invests in a green overhaul of the nation’s public housing stock. Its objective is to make all public housing in the United States both high quality and zero carbon.