Tackling the crises of environmental, racial, and economic justice in the United States will mean tackling the housing crisis by building millions of zero-carbon homes in the next 10 years, and by retrofitting the tens of millions of homes that poor, working class, and BIPOC people currently live in. This would entail, among other things, saving the public housing that exists, and developing new models of social housing. These investments provide an opportunity to reduce energy poverty, improve health by eliminating in-home burning of fossil fuels, and raise the standard of living for millions of people while reducing their costs rent payments. Building and retrofitting these homes can bring millions of new workers into the cutting-edge green building economy. Our reports, memos, and op-eds explore the political economy of a Green New Deal for Housing including specific policy proposals, polling, and the need for such a program. And our research demonstrates the manifold links between housing and climate politics in cities in the US, Brazil, and beyond.
Publications
2024
Gianpaolo Baiocchi, H. Jacob Carlson, Ruth Gourevitch, Daniel Aldana Cohen. 2024. “Green Social Housing at Scale: How a Federal Green Social Housing Development Authority Can Build, Repair, and Finance Homes for All.” Climate and Community Project. June, 1-51.
Kira McDonald, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Ruthy Gourevitch. 2024. “The Case for a Green New Deal for Public Housing.” Climate and Community Project. March, 1-40.
2023
Daniel Aldana Cohen. 2022. Should We Start Preparing for the Evacuation of Miami? Yes. The Nation. February 3.
2022
Daniel Aldana Cohen, J. Mjin Cha, Nick Graetz, Aaryaman Singhal, Raka Sen. 2022. Securing Climate Justice Federally: A Political Economy Approach to Targeted Investments. Environmental Justice. Online first. https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2022.0047.
Daniel Aldana Cohen. 2022. “A Green New Deal for Housing.” In Craig Calhoun and Benjamin Fong eds. The Green New Deal and the Future of Work. New York: Columbia University Press, 237-254
2021
Cohen, Daniel Aldana, Rachel Mulbry, A. L. McCullough, Kira McDonald, Nick Graetz, Billy Fleming. 2021. A Green New Deal for Public Housing to Deliver Racial, Economic, and Climate Justice. Philadelphia: Climate and Community Project. Report co-sponsored by (SC)2. April 19. Download report.
2020
Daniel Aldana Cohen and Mark Paul. 2020. The Case for Social Housing. The Justice Collaborative, Data for Progress. November 2. Download report.
2019
Billy Fleming, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Nick Graetz, Katie Lample, Alexandra Lillehei, Kira McDonald, Julian Brave NoiseCat, Mark Paul. 2019. Public Housing At Risk: Adaptation through a Green New Deal. Research Report. Data for Progress. Report co-sponsored by (SC)2. December 16. Download report.
Daniel Aldana Cohen, Billy Fleming, Kira McDonald, Julian Brave NoiseCat, Nick Graetz, Katie Lample, Alexandra Lillehei, Mark Paul, Anunya Bahanda. 2019. A Green New Deal for American Public Housing Communities. Research Report. Data for Progress. Report co-sponsored by (SC)2. November 22. Download report.
Daniel Aldana Cohen, Billy Fleming, Kira McDonald, Nick Graetz, Mark Paul, Alexandra Lillehei, Katie Lample, Julian Brave NoiseCat. 2019. A Green New Deal for New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Communities. Research Report. Data for Progress. Report co-sponsored by (SC)2. November 14. Download report.
Daniel Aldana Cohen and Julian Brave NoiseCat. 2019. Bernie and AOC’s Green New Deal for Public Housing Act Would Transform America. The Nation. November 14.
Sean McElwee, John Ray, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Julian Brave NoiseCat. 2019. The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act Can Stand Up to Scrutiny. Polling Memo. Data for Progress. November 14. Report co-sponsored by (SC)2. Download memo.
Daniel Aldana Cohen, Tara Raghuveer, Sean McElwee, Jack Nicol, John Ray. 2019. The Green Homes Guarantee is Popular. Polling Memo. Data for Progress. Report co-sponsored by (SC)2. October 19. Download memo.
Daniel Aldana Cohen. 2019. A Successful Climate Plan Must Also Tackle the Housing Crisis. The Guardian. October 1.
Daniel Aldana Cohen. 2019. A Green Homes Guarantee Is Popular. Blog. Data for Progress. September 18.
Daniel Aldana Cohen. 2019. Mitigate Housing and Climate Risk through a Green New Deal for Housing. Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. September 10.
Daniel Aldana Cohen, Peter Gowan, Sofia Lopez and Maurice Weeks , Mark Paul, Thomas Silverstein,
Kelly Viselman, Cea Weaver, Tara Raghuveer and
Kevin Simowitz. 2019. A National Homes Guarantee. Report. September 5.
Daniel Aldana Cohen. 2019. Eco-Apartheid is Real. The Nation. July 26.
Jennifer L. Rice Daniel Aldana Cohen Joshua Long Jason R. Jurjevich. 2019. Contradictions of the Climate‐Friendly City: New Perspectives on Eco‐Gentrification and Housing Justice. In International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Online first. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12740
Daniel Aldana Cohen. 2019. A Green New Deal for Housing. Jacobin. February 8.
2018
Daniel Aldana Cohen. 2018. Climate Justice and the Right to the City. White Paper. Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, Penn Institute for Urban Research, and Perry World House.
2017
Daniel Aldana Cohen. 2017. “The Other Low-Carbon Protagonists: Poor People’s Movements and Climate Politics in São Paulo.” Pp 140-157. In Miriam Greenberg and Penny Luce eds. The City is the Factory: Social Movements in the Age of Neoliberal Urbanism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
2016
Cohen, Daniel Aldana. 2016. The Rationed City: The politics of water, housing, and land use in drought-parched São Paulo. Public Culture, 28:2, 261-289.
Cohen, Daniel Aldana and Max Liboiron. 2016. New York’s Two Sandys. Metropolics. 20 October 2014.