Across the United States, communities are facing two simultaneous and interrelated crises: climate change and scarce affordable housing. These crises are becoming more salient as severe weather events become more frequent, severe, and extensive, and as tens of millions of Americans struggle to afford a place to live. They also exacerbate each other: climate change mitigation and adaptation can make housing even more expensive, while deregulatory and supply-side affordable housing solutions can cause climate impacts. Nominally climate-friendly development can also cause “low-carbon gentrification,” where decarbonized lifestyles marketed to higher-income residents actually increase greenhouse gas emissions. This Note argues that to avoid these unintended harms, climate and affordable housing solutions must incorporate housing and climate justice. Approaches to affordable housing rooted in the social and solidarity economy provide an especially helpful model for envisioning just solutions that can simultaneously address the climate and housing crises.

This Note begins by describing the problems posed by climate change and unaffordable housing, as illustrated by how the crises manifest in Montana. Part II identifies the mechanisms by which housing interventions accelerate climate change, describes the roles played by climate change mitigation and adaptation in increasing housing costs, and summarizes climate-related gentrification theories. Part III introduces the social and solidarity economy framework and argues that limited-equity housing cooperatives can provide climate benefits while making housing more affordable. Finally, Part IV concludes that the limited-equity housing cooperative model can provide housing and climate benefits in the Montana case study.

Continue reading Collective Action at Home: Cooperative Housing as a Justice-Oriented Solution to the Climate and Affordable Housing Crises