Vienna has long been among the many international examples that provide valuable lessons for systematic social betterment — particularly for the housing crisis, which has become catastrophic in the U.S. Conversely, in the Austrian capital, a thriving, popular state-led social housing model leads the globe in providing high-quality affordable developments (known locally as the Gemeindebau) to a large segment of the population. With a pragmatic yet forward-thinking design, particularly in green energy future-proofing, the Vienna model offers a knowledge base, born of decades of experience, that in a just world would be tapped to help enact comparable proposals in the United States — like the currently stagnant hopes of a Green New Deal for Housing.