Healthy Homes First

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:17] Speaker B: Welcome to Uptown Chats, a podcast where we share stories about environmental justice by and for everyday people. I'm your co host, Lonnie. [00:00:24] Speaker C: And I'm your other co host, Jaron. And. [00:00:25] Speaker B: And today we're joined by WEAC's federal policy director, Anastasia Gordon to talk about one of WE act's major campaigns this year called Healthy Homes First. [00:00:35] Speaker D: Hi everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. [00:00:38] Speaker C: We'll also be including the rest of our interview with Bunny McKenzie Mack, who we had on the podcast before. And we'll hear about her experience renovating her grandmother's house, among other things. That ties neatly into our conversation with Anastasia. [00:00:54] Speaker B: But before we get into that, I want to remind folks that last month we launched our Uptown Chats hotline where listeners can call in with questions they have about climate and environmental justice. So if you got questions, call 877-Uptown 6. That's 877-Uptown 6. You might make an appearance on the show. And with that said, Jaron, can you share WEAC's mission? [00:01:13] Speaker C: I sure can. WEAC's mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies. And thank you. [00:01:27] Speaker B: And now the star of the show. Thank you, Anastasia, for joining us. We're excited to have you talk to us about the Healthy Homes first campaign. Before we get ahead of ourselves a little bit, can you tell listeners a little bit more about yourself and your role at WE act? [00:01:42] Speaker D: Sure, no problem. Hi everyone, I'm Anastasia Gordon. I'm the Federal policy director within REACT's Federal Policy Office in D.C. and I lead our Federal Policy team in developing and implementing strategies and initiatives that advance EJ in public policy, particularly around the building, energy and transportation sectors. [00:02:07] Speaker C: For some reason, yeah, for some reason, I've made it my mission to keep track of how many times everyone has been on the podcast and how many times they've appeared on the show. So if I remember correctly, you have been on the show once before to help introduce our Wrong Direction miniseries back in 2024. So it's been a minute, but we're glad to have you back on the show. [00:02:27] Speaker D: It's wild. It's been a while. [00:02:29] Speaker C: Well overdue. That was a great miniseries though, which is very much still relevant. So we'll make sure to include a link to that episode in the show notes for anyone who wants to go back and give it a listen. And for anyone who hears this and wants to hear more of Anastasia's Voice. There you go. You can give that a listen. [00:02:46] Speaker B: With that said, Anastasia. So let's go ahead and let's dive into what we came to talk about today. The Healthy Homes first campaign. Just kick it off. Can you tell us about the campaign and what it's all about? [00:02:55] Speaker D: Absolutely. Healthy Homes First Campaign. It's a labor of love. I mean essentially it's built on the premise that everyone deserves access to safe, healthy, efficient and affordable housing. No exception. So In May of 2025 we launched our Healthy Homes campaign. It's essentially a bold call to action for a holistic and equitable approach to building electrification. So by elevating lived experiences and driving policy reforms, also addressing indoor hazards that really affect especially our communities where the campaign focuses on whole of home upgrades that ensures that buildings are healthy and safe and pollution free, especially for environmental justice communities living in public and affordable housing. The campaign builds on the success of our work in New York. For example, like our out of Gas in with justice pilot project that showed the benefits of transitioning to electrification and working with our members to address indoor health hazards like lead and mold. But also ensuring that there are structural and remediation that needs to happen in order for their apartments, their homes to be eligible. For example, energy efficiency programs and funding so that all communities, including ours can benefit from the transition to clean energy economy and clean buildings, essentially. [00:04:44] Speaker C: Thanks Anastasia. I feel like this is really good timing to be talking about this a because there's work that we're doing obviously at we act to build momentum around this campaign but just I feel like it's really just fitting the discourse that I hear a lot of people talking about right now thinking about the, talking about energy, energy affordability, talking about being able to be comfortable in their homes. You know, this, this year in New York we had a very cold winter. So lots of people thinking about their energy bill and how to stay comfortable in their home. But all those other pieces, you know, in terms of environmental justice, thinking about lead exposure, you know, other other indoor pollutants and you know, before my current role, I was previously working on the environmental health team and thinking a lot about the exposures that people have indoors, indoor air quality and the fact that people spend so much of their time indoors, but especially in their homes, you know, especially now in a time where people work from home, there's days I don't even leave my home. So think about all the things I'm exposed to in a given day. So this feels, this feels really relevant and you kind of touched on it a Little bit. But what's some of that momentum like, leading up to this campaign? Obviously we, you alluded to the fact that we had our out of gas in with justice pilot, but if you just want to say a couple more words about what kind of led to the timing of this campaign right now and wanting to kind of put more effort and energy kind of consolidated around this Healthy Homes first campaign, specifically what that momentum looked like, building up to it. [00:06:08] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. And you're right, like the EPA says that we spend 90% of our time indoors, which is wild. So you could imagine, like if your home is not healthy, if there's mold, there's lead, et cetera, you know, even if you have access to renewable energy, even if you get those energy efficiency upgrades, you're still living in a home with mold and pests, et cetera. So that's some of the things that we've been hearing from our members in New York. But also at the federal level, when we really started thinking around the Healthy Homes first campaign and the concept of it, it was a time where the Biden administration had just put out their big climate funding bill, which is the inflation Reduction Act. So we were seeing lots of funding going towards home energy rebates and funding for boosting the weatherization assistance program, which helps low income folks get energy efficiency upgrades, for instance. And so we wanted to remind all stakeholders from federal to state that in as much as we want to move towards cleaner buildings, they must be healthy as well. So that's where we put forward the notion of, well, healthy homes. But it should be first and foremost, and then that should complement our movement towards decarbonizing the building sector. But even more so, it's relevant. Now you spoke about kitchen table issues like how can we afford our energy bills this month. That's one of the things that energy efficiency upgrades does. It helps us save money on our energy bills, makes our home feel comfortable, etc. But now in this administration, we're seeing the rollback of many of those energy efficiency rebates and whole home upgrades money for energy efficiency, appliances, etc. So more than ever before, and we're again seeing utility bills rising because the state of the economy, we can go into that a little more, but I won't. But essentially oil and gas is at the front and center of this administration. And of course our gas bills are rising because of the geopolitical situation. So even more so, it's more relevant than ever before that we put healthy homes first, that we ensure that we are getting those Investments but we're also ensuring that the, we're remediating those health in home health hazards. We're ensuring that there's funding for very commonplace but also popular programs like the low income energy efficiency program that helps many and millions of low income households pay their energy bills. These are the things that need to be censored right now. We can't be rolling these back. So again this is why this campaign is even more relevant than ever before. [00:09:32] Speaker B: Yeah. One of the things that I love about this campaign too is that kind of approaching things from a lot of different angles and I think something that people forget as you mentioned before, you know here in New York state and city we both have laws about new buildings being constructed have to be all electric. Right. Which is great. Which is kind of the goal overall at we act that we would love for all our buildings to be, to be electric, to fully, fully electric and be using primarily renewable energy to run those buildings. But this is an old city in an old state with a lot of housing stock that has a lot of buildings that do not have, that already exist that need to be healthier and more energy efficient. And so really kind of the Healthy homes program also feeds into the need and the narrative that older buildings are usually the poorer and the worst housing stock are in communities of color and low income communities and and in order for them to actually have healthy homes, they need the funding often to do those upgrades before they can even think about electrification. So that's why things like we fight at the state level for programs like the Green Affordable Pre Electrification Fund or the GAP Fund which provides money to do all this remediation work before we can even like electrify. So I think this idea of like this whole through line between a tenant's journey or someone who is living somewhere in their home or from just the building of it itself to all the way to your energy bill when you get it. I think it's a really nice complete campaign. But I do know that part of the campaign Anastasia and I want you to talk to a little bit about there's a foundational aspect to the campaign that has to do with principals that are involved with healthy Homes first. Can you kind of go through some of what those principles are? [00:11:12] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. So you know, after we launch the campaign in 2025, we sought about to convene some strategic partners from across the country. Specifically Action in Montgomery in Maryland, Deep south center for Environmental justice in New Orleans. Green Roots in Boston, Massachusetts, Wisconsin Green Muslims Midwest Decarbonization in Michigan and then PODER in Austin, Texas. And really we leverage their expertise in this space, in the building decarbonization space, but also as fundamentally environmental justice organizations. And we leverage their expertise to develop principles for equitable building decarbonization. Because we wanted a more holistic, not just from New York, but a more broad spectrum of what communities are facing as we think about as we move towards a transition to building electrification. What we came up with were these six principles. Obviously these are not exhaustive and well known, but it's worth repeating and, and re emphasizing and essentially it's one, centering and protecting frontline communities, ensuring that there's pre weatherization and health upgrades in the transition to zero emission energy solutions, enforcing transparency and accountability. Empowering communities through education and workforce development. Five, ensuring energy affordability and preventing displacement while we're at it. And again, ensuring that there's climate resilience at every step. Also in our principles documents, there's also recommendations and case studies. The idea behind these principles is to ensure that there's a tangible and equitable pathway for building decarbonization across the U.S. the case studies can show you, okay, what's happening in Michigan, what's happening in Detroit and you can, you know, as an advocate, you can use these principles to really benchmark what's going on, the building decarbonization mandates or policies or legislation that's being put forward in your states and really see, okay, well they address this, this and that, but not climate resilience. They're not being transparent. So it's really a tool for advocates to really benchmark building decarbonization efforts. But also it shows stakeholders like landlords and legislators and utilities what they need to consider when they are pursuing energy efficiency upgrades and programs and investments that yes, we want to see those emissions in carbon from buildings and we want grid reliability and all of that. But at the heart of it is your program going after ensuring that the most impacted communities, the most energy burden communities, the communities that are most vulnerable to climate impacts, they are living in healthy homes and affordable homes and they can truly benefit and participate in that transition to building decarbonization. [00:15:08] Speaker B: Sounds like there's a lot planned for this campaign and I'm really excited in a good way. I feel like it's so. It's so timely. Anastasia, in a lot of ways, I think with other political things that are happening right now in terms of just midterm elections going on, and I think one thing that people have to remember as well as working on policy teams, we may not Be writing the exact policy word for word, or we're not the ones creating or designing programs. But I think it's extremely important for us to be able to give people, legislators, decision makers who are creating these things, principles that sit within the environmental justice community that have been cited on and agreed upon as like, this is how you should guide how you're making a program or some type of legislation. Just so many programs, right. And we're going to definitely learn about all the different programs going on in New York to do some of this work in a later podcast at some point. But. But there's so many different programs, they vary state by state, localities. So it's really nice if we can get everyone on the same page. So I know you listed multiple principles, but one of the principles I kind of want to focus on, if you could talk to a little bit, because I think it's something that really comes up a lot with our own membership and our own community base here in northern Manhattan. A lot is principle five. And it's ensuring that energy affordability and to prevent displacement. I think those are really two important principles there that I think a lot of people recognize that as they want their homes and their buildings and their communities to be healthier and more energy efficient and all of these other aspects that sometimes that can come at a cost of now your neighborhood is better, or now your building is better, now you can, now your rent's going to go up, now you're going to be displaced and you won't be able to enjoy the benefits that people have fought for. So can you talk a little bit about Principle 5 and the importance of it being there? [00:16:56] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. You know, this was also with the strategic partners that we worked with on developing these principles. That was also a major thing, right. Preventing this, what they were calling green displacement. And essentially what we were looking at here is that as building owners upgrade, let's say they're multifamily building unit, right? They tried. They pass on those costs to renters and essentially, whether purposefully or not, they raise the cost of rent, passing along, you know, the cost of doing the upgrades, the electrical upgrades, whatever it is, right. And then people can't afford their homes again. And so they're displaced from the only communities they may have known for a long time. And, and that's the kind of thing we want to prevent as we transition to energy efficient climate, even climate mandates. For instance, if building owners want to meet standards, for instance, they might, okay, say, I'm going to reduce my building emissions by X. And so that means really significant, you know, retrofits and upgrades that lead them to say, okay, well I'm passing this cost on to renters and especially the low income renters are forced to make decisions about should I stay or should I go. And also it could be purposeful as you know, doing these upgrades so that they can get higher earning tenants. And again, there's this displacement or even I wanted to add the other elements which we talk about in our healthy homes first principles document too, that these building certifications, for instance, like LEED can also lead to a new generation or a new income bracket of renters into renters and homeowners into a community and thus displaces communities mostly low income and people of color who live there for generations or decades. So those are the things that we highlighted on and we wanted to put this in there to say that yes, we want to see those upgrades, we wanted to lower the cost for people living here, but we do not want to, it should not be at the cost of the communities that live there, that the people that live there, the cultures that live there. And we don't want to see that erasure of black and brown culture. So that was. I agree. That is a significant principle that we want all relevant stakeholders to, to uphold when thinking about building decarbonization efforts and investments and programs. [00:20:16] Speaker B: Thanks for that. I just wanted to make sure everyone understood that there is the connection between environmental justice and housing justice and that they're not necessarily opposing each other. I think sometimes, often people believe that that's the case. But no, we're building in these same principles and similar principles about displacement and affordability. [00:20:32] Speaker D: Absolutely. And as I mentioned, there's. We also included recommendations. We included things like tenant protections and ensuring for instance that building owners take on the upfront cost of let's say putting in induction stoves, for instance, in your apartments like we did in our out of gas pilot. They take on the cost or there are programs to provide these energy efficiency upgrades at low cost or finance them. And so there are options in there that could show legislators or utilities or building managers and owners a pathway forward that doesn't lead to displacements and gentrification. [00:21:25] Speaker C: Thank you for that. And in case it's not clear, we could probably talk to you about this all day. We would need so much time to go through this whole document and unpack all the pieces and that are in there and have a full discussion. But for the sake of time, since we do have limit, we don't want to make this an hour and a half, two, three hour podcast. I'll ask you just one more question to kind of close us out if you don't mind. And that's just for you to share some information about where folks can learn more about the campaign and what's kind of on the horizon. You mentioned some of those short term goals, but any specific actions that folks might be able to support or be involved in in the next coming months or later this year. Just anything you want to shout out for folks who are listening. [00:22:05] Speaker D: If any of you, public and otherwise, want to join and learn more about the campaign, you can visit our Healthy Homes first website, which is literally www.healthyhomesfirst.org. easy to remember. Sign up for updates and there's also a Take Action page where you can sign up for a newsletter, but also you can share your healthy home story, right? Like what? What do you consider as healthy home? Is it building electrification? Moving away from gas to electrification? Is it ensuring that you're removing indoor health hazards like lead? Like mold? Is it affordability? I bet you it's all of the above. But we want to hear from you and it gives us fuel for the fire essentially to show federal legislations and also state electeds why it's so crucial that we put, as I mentioned before, put healthy homes first alongside building decarbonization efforts. Please share your story, tell us about what you think a healthy home is and then follow us and share our work. We'll be publishing it on social media from time to time, so share those things. Share our digital assets on REACT for EJ Healthy Homes First. [00:23:39] Speaker B: Awesome. I think that was so great. You set us up really well and I love the idea of sharing stories about these things that people are doing, experiencing and I think that's a good segue into revisiting A story from Bunny Mac, who has been on the podcast before to talk about her journey making her new home healthy. [00:23:57] Speaker C: Let's do it. [00:24:05] Speaker A: I think that maybe what I want to talk about is my grandmother's house. I don't think I touched on that. So my grandmother, on a factory worker salary bought her house on the south side of Chicago in 1974. I started renovating that house in the 50th year anniversary when she purchased it. She passed away a few years ago. I didn't know that. I started renovating the house in the 50th year anniversary. I only knew because I looked up the original deed and that's when I realized like, oh wait, I'm like actually on Time. And like, I'm actually renovating our house during the 50th anniversary. So it just felt very much like it was meant to be. And for me, you know, pushing for environmental justice and for a future that includes us all and not just a few of us or a small percentage of us, is inspired by her and her legacy. At that time, I think she was the only homeowner in our entire family. And I think for her to have been able to purchase that home, especially as a blue collar worker, she actually worked at a medical parts factory, so she would make medical parts along with her colleagues, is really incredible. And then at one time she worked for Sara Lee, which when I found that out as well by going through her things and we started to clear the house out, I was really mad about that because I was like, how come I never got any free Sarah Lee? This is like, makes no sense. But why? Why did I always have to pay for Sarah Lee? I should be getting Sarah Lee for free then. And up until now, she worked there a long time. But I digress. Sarah Lee, though, if you listen to this, hit me up, okay, But I'm renovating the house now. I am electrifying it completely and removing the lead service line. So in Chicago, they actually do have a funded program for the removal of lead service lines, but they don't have enough people to do the work. And I knew, I'm like, hey, if we're opening up the ground anyway, let's just kind of remove lead service lines, let's just kind of like do it ourselves, etc. Etc. We're adding a heat pump. We're using straw insulation. I think we'll be the only house in Chicago outside of the suburbs that's insulated with straw, which is like, really, really exciting. And I bring that up because I think sometimes we can engage in conversations around environmental justice and around, like, what it means to be climate resilient or like, what collective future we want to build towards. Every time that I go to this house, I feel like I'm living a part of the future that I want for everyone. And it's like a very spiritual, energetic grounding experience for me, especially when I get to talk to kind of like hermogeny older men who, like, are like, wait a minute, you want to have a heat pump? Why? And like, why would you want to do that? And engaging in conversations with them about that. I. Even for me, I thought this was actually a big compliment. But I was talking to a contractor who has worked in Chicago a very Long time, maybe over 40 years. And I was explaining to him what I wanted to do with heat pumps, and he just was like, you kids, you read too much, you know, and like, no, that is not a good idea. Whatever, right? And. But for me, it was so interesting because we went back and forth and we had. I mean, it was very, very Chicago, where if you're not a Chicagoan and you hear it from the outside, you're like, oh, this is like a really mean conversation. But if you are Chicago and you're like, oh, no, this is just like, this is like a Tuesday. But we had this conversation. At the end of it, two hours later, I was leaving my grandmother's house to go and fly to another city for work. And right before I was getting on the plane, he called me on my cell, and he just was like, hey, listen, I really thought about our conversation, and I called some of the people that I know who have been doing work, like me for a really long time, and one of them said they had just recently attended some sort of a workshop about heat pumps. And so they educated me, and now I know here's some things. And he said it in a way that was very much like, he was a little bit disappointed, but also kind of like, trying to help me. Like, here's a way that you can actually do this effectively and still make sure your home is heated, but based on what you're trying to do with, like, you know, making this home as reliant on renewable energy as possible. And for me, I thought, oh, wow, that was a huge win. And this is not even me at work. This is not even me saying, I'm going to teach someone about renewable energy today, or I'm going to have a conversation with someone about environmental justice today. And I say that because sometimes when we engage in advocacy work, we think that our role is to go into community and to do the educating. But I find that oftentimes, especially if you have the right posturing, the right positioning, it'll happen naturally as it's meant to. The community will lead you if you allow yourself to be led. And I think also if you take the ego out of, like, knowing the right thing to do and knowing when that thing should happen and how it should happen. If you're like, no, actually, I'm like, really? I feel really confident in the direction that I'm headed in. I know where I'm headed. I know. I know I'm committed to it. And when folks kind of push on that, especially folks that are used to a different way of life or a different way of, like, you know, relying on energy or like energy being generated or produced. I can still make space for them. And potentially they, over time, based on the conversation that we've had, will come to a different understanding of what's possible and how. That, for me, is something that I'm experiencing in a very, very tangible way with this renovation project of my grandmother's house, which is over 100 years old. So I'm sure y' all can understand how, how much adventure I get to experience in that process. But it's something for me that I'm really proud of that I wanted to share with your listeners, too. [00:29:27] Speaker B: Thanks for listening. If you liked this episode, make sure to rate and review the show on whatever platform you listen on. If you have thoughts about the show or suggestions for topics you want us to discuss, we encourage you to reach [00:29:37] Speaker C: out to [email protected] or 877-Uptown-6. [00:29:42] Speaker B: Just had to do it, didn't you? [00:29:43] Speaker C: I did. I forgot to add it. And check out React on Facebook at react4ej. That's W E a C T F O R E j on Instagram, bluesky and YouTube at react4ej. That's W E A C T number 4ej. And check out our website we act.org for more information about environmental justice. [00:30:04] Speaker B: Until next time, Bye.