🏡💚 You gotta fight for your rights
April 26, 2024
Last week, we shared the results of the coalition-wide vote on our GND legislative slate in 2024. Our Climate & Housing Justice priority bills include two constitutional amendments, both of which are trying to enshrine new rights into the California constitution: the right to housing (ACA 10), and the right to clean air and water and a healthy environment (ACA 16).
ACA 10 would amend the California Constitution to recognize that every Californian has the fundamental human right to adequate housing. I covered ACA 10 in a previous newsletter (looking at how Scotland has used their right to housing framework and social housing to address the housing crisis), but it’s worth restating that this could be a game-changing legal tool. The same goes for ACA 16.
ACA 16, also known as the “green amendment,” was introduced by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, and is a very simple. The amendment would add one short sentence to the state constitution’s Declaration of Rights: “The people shall have a right to clean air and water and a healthy environment.”
This comes as part of a new wave of states looking to establish environmental rights in their constitution. Seven states already have green amendments, but six of them were passed in the 60s and 70s as part of the emerging environmental movement of that time: Illinois (1970), Pennsylvania (1971), Massachusetts (1972), Montana (1972), Hawaii (1978), and Rhode Island (1986). The most recent came in 2021, when voters in New York passed their green amendment with 70% voting in support. There are now at least 14 other states with active green amendment proposals, with others anticipated to come forward soon.
While some may see this as symbolic, these rights can be a meaningful tool to hold the state accountable to a standard of environmental protection and health. You may have heard about the landmark legal case last year, when a Montana District Court Judge ruled in favor of 16 youth in Held et al. v. State of Montana, which found the state’s fossil fuel policies violated the youth’s right to a clean and healthful environment. The New York green amendment is already being put to the test, with a pair of lawsuits challenging the operation of a landfill located in western upstate New York.
The California green amendment should not be taken as merely symbolic either. As the LA Times Editorial Board wrote earlier this week, “there’s a reason that powerful business interests have come out in opposition.” Indeed, the Chamber of Commerce put ACA 16 on their 2024 job killer list, which to me, usually indicates the sign of a good bill (not because the bill “kills job” but because it stands up to corporations).
The New York success is part of the spark that has reignited the national campaign for green amendments, and Assemblymember Bryan thinks ACA 16 could be a huge next step. “If California were to do this it would mean that one in eight Americans has a constitutional right to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment, and I think that would have a ripple effect across the country,” Bryan said.
New York’s green amendment serves as motivation in another less obvious way — remember that this passed with 70% support. That level of support would go a long way in the November election, which has enormous implications nationally and in the state. In California, we can anticipate another big slate of ballot measures. And while this can be overwhelming and very confusing for voters (sometimes intentionally), they will also have really really big consequences. I’ve written previously about the CBRT measure (boo! hiss!), ACA 1 and the Bay Area regional housing bond, and that’s just scratching the surface. There will also be important climate and environmental justice fights on the ballot, including (maybe?) a climate bond, and a referendum on the oil well setbacks law (SB 1137) passed in 2022.
ACA 16 is simple, straightforward, and popular. The hope is that this can help increase turnout in November, driving voters to the polls who will also support these other environmental justice and progressive ballot measures that are going to be hard fought.
Together, ACA 10 and ACA 16 are demands for the state to recognize housing and a healthy environment as fundamental to human flourishing. That’s the same vision we share with our campaign for green social housing. We need housing for the sole purpose of providing affordable and beautiful homes for people, not for making profit for corporations. We need an environment that is healthy and protected for us, and for all future generations.
Passing these two amendments and enshrining these rights in the constitution would not in themselves lead to green social housing, but they could lay a foundation. They would establish a clear obligation for the state to uphold these values. As private corporations continue to pollute, and drive the housing crisis through rampant speculation, the state will have a mandate to step in and take the actions that we’ve been demanding: no drilling where we’re living, make polluters pay, housing for people not for profit.
WHAT WE’RE READING
Editorial: In eco-minded California, there’s still no constitutional right to clean air and water (LA Times)
We Need Structural Solutions to California’s Housing Crisis, Not Quick Fixes (LA Progressive) — in support of ACA 10!
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