You’ve probably heard of NIMBYs — the “not in my backyard” folks who turn up at city council meetings across the country to oppose big new housing, industrial and commercial developments. Now there’s the backlash: YIMBYs (“yes in my backyard”), a movement to make housing more affordable and available by easing zoning regulations and other barriers to building. And YIMBYs are excited about Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
“It’s YIMBYs’ time to shine,” said Business Insider. Harris’ affordable housing plan — which pledges to “cut red tape” that blocks new construction — “explicitly echoes” the YIMBY agenda. That agenda especially targets blue states and cities where permitting requirements and environmental reviews “have hamstrung efforts to build more homes.” If housing is a supply-and-demand problem, then YIMBYism looks to ensure there is plenty of supply. The best way to solve America’s housing shortage “is to make it permissible for people to build as much housing as they can, especially for working people,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
“Kamala Harris is a YIMBY,” the co-founder of YIMBYs for Harris told Huffington Post. That might be good politics: “Housing costs are a mainstream political issue,” especially in swing states like Arizona and Nevada where “rent and home prices have spiked” in recent years.
What did the commentators say?
America’s housing crisis “has its roots in regulations enacted by innumerable municipalities,” Harvard University economist Edward L. Glaeser said in The New York Times. That’s why the median-price of a single-family home now clocks in at $422,000. But those NIMBY towns won’t back off the building barriers “out of the goodness of their hearts.” If Harris truly wants to make a dent in the cost of housing, she’ll need to threaten federal funding that goes to states and cities if they don’t change course. Otherwise, “it is hard for the federal government to engineer change at the hyperlocal level.”
The YIMBY movement is at a “high-water mark” of political visibility, Matthew Yglesias said at Bloomberg Opinion. President Joe Biden has been YIMBY in a “low-key way,” but former President Barack Obama’s endorsement of YIMBY principles in his speech at the Democratic Convention was a “thrilling moment.” The problem? Restrict zoning rules don’t really explain the entirety of the housing crisis. “Tighter lending standards” adopted after the 2008 financial crisis has also “dried up” the pool of people who can get mortgages to purchase new homes. So they don’t get built. “Without any eligible purchasers of cheap starter homes, it doesn’t really make sense to build them,” said Yglesias.
What next?
Will the 2024 presidential campaign turn on housing and YIMBYism? “To say pro-housing advocates are amped about Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign would be an understatement,” Sara Libby said in The San Francisco Chronicle.
Harris and her opponent, Donald Trump, both “speak in broad strokes about cutting red tape.” But their approaches are different. Project 2025 — written by former Trump Administration officials, though officially disavowed by Trump himself — does call for fewer zoning regulations. It also urges that such decisions be made by local officials who “are typically the source of obstruction.” Harris wants “the locals and states to streamline,” UC Berkeley’s Ben Metcalf said to Libby. “And that is not what Trump seems to be saying.”