New Issue Brief Explores Connections between Housing, the Environment, and Policy Solutions

The Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) campaign released an issue brief, “Housing Policy is Environmental Policy: The Complementary Aims of Fair Housing and Environmental Justice,” on Earth Day (April 22). The brief explores the connections between housing and the environment by taking a close look at the impacts of environmental injustices on housing stability, the history of environmental and housing policy and advocacy, and federal policy solutions to problems involving the intersections of the environment and housing. Among other things, the brief details the threats to stable housing posed by climate change, several recent initiatives championed by the Biden administration, and how the OSAH campaign’s policy agenda provides solutions to urgent challenges. “American history has been defined by a blatant lack of both fair housing and environmental justice, especially for communities of color and households with the lowest incomes,” explains the brief. “However, by building on recent momentum and pursuing a set of ambitious policies at the intersection of housing and climate, it is possible to put the country on a path to ‘green’ and affordable prosperity.” Read the complete brief here.