Could this city be the model for how to tackle the housing crisis and climate change?

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Vienna isn't just working to reduce climate pollution, it's also building new infrastructure to help adapt to global warming. Hofstetter says social housing is intricately tied into these new plans.

On an old airfield with a large lake, Vienna is building a new social housing development with a special emphasis on decreasing risks from climate change, like heat and flooding. This development, called Seestadt, has a mix of city-built housing and city-subsidized housing.

Hofstetter, a landscaper by training who helped design Seestadt, says the development has elements of something called a "sponge city." On a street near some social housing, Hofstetter points to a sunken planter full of gravel, sand and the beginnings of daffodils. It's about the size of the bed of a flatbed truck. It turns out the sunken planter helps prevent floods.

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In intense rainstorms, instead of massive amounts of rainwater all rushing into the sewer at once, the sunken planters can absorb excess stormwater so it doesn't overpower the sewer system. With permeable landscaping like this, he says, " the sewer system can be much smaller."

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