At a Glance: Upgrading America's Homes and Buildings

Building and homes are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and of energy waste. Much of our housing stock is old, unhealthy, or unsafe for residents. A housing shortage is driving prices beyond affordability for most Americans. Since the COVID pandemic, cities and towns face a glut of unoccupied office space, some of which must be refashioned for other purposes or replaced. All of this will require millions of new construction workers, creating as many good, high-paying jobs. The national mission for homes and buildings will:

Organize millions of workers — many of whom will be new entrants into the workforce — to overhaul America's homes and buildings for CO2 emissions, energy efficiency, comfort, health, and safety.

Require states to streamline permitting and approval processes for building projects — tying federal aid and funding of all types to compliance, in the same way the federal government does today to enforce national transportation rules.

Establish a federal project to provide training and support for millions of new workers to enter or reenter the construction workforce.

Finance and coordinate the upgrading of most homes and buildings in 10 years through long-term green bonds, issued by the RFC, that are paid by utility companies out of savings from efficiency.

Compensate homeowners and tenants for the inconvenience of upgrading homes to ensure uptake.

The United States housing sector has two major problems: millions of homes are contributing to the climate crisis by using fossil fuel-powered heaters, stoves and other appliances; and a national housing shortage has caused the costs of owning or renting a home to skyrocket. A comprehensive national housing policy must focus on both problems by retrofitting existing homes for sustainability, comfort, and safety — and building millions of new zero-emission, highly efficient homes.

Residential building emissions primarily arise from homes using fossil fuel for heating, cooking, and laundry. These processes contribute to the climate crisis and produce pollutants that harm the health of residents. Investing in home electrification and energy efficiency retrofits will decrease a home's carbon footprint and impact on the grid, lower monthly utility bills, and improve the health of those living there.

An important way to make housing affordable is to build more homes. The 2010s were the slowest decade for new home construction in modern American history, and since then, the total supply of homes has remained consistently below demand. Investing in sustainable housing will help lower costs and make housing affordable for all Americans.

America's stock of commercial buildings is another major source of carbon emissions. Building owners are nowhere near on track to decarbonize buildings. As with homes, public financing will be necessary, and will be provided by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. American cities are now filled with empty office buildings. Though it is difficult, many of these building can be converted to other purposes. Others will need to be dismantled, recycled, and replaced with apartment buildings or other kinds of buildings.

Homeowners, tenants, and landlords cannot be expected to pay the costs of upgrades. Requiring them to pay will render this mission, and likely the entire Mission for America, politically unpopular. Moreover, when the typical homeowner, renter, and landlord are all struggling with high costs, it makes no sense to add an additional burden on them.

The workforce required for this mission will be enormous. One of the Mission for America's goals is to build an economy that can provide prosperity for everyone. Home and building upgrade work has jobs of all skill levels and will be needed in every community. This is the perfect project to provide good jobs to people who have been out of the workforce for a long time or who have no work experience. It can provide good work for people reestablishing their lives after prison, drug addicts in recovery, and others who have difficulty getting into the workforce today. There will also be much work for high-skilled and specialized construction workers.

We recommend that the RFC finance this huge project by issuing long-term green bonds that will be paid back by energy savings paid out by utility companies. Instead of seeing energy savings on their utility bills, rate payers will enjoy all the benefits of the upgrades for free.