{"id":9936,"date":"2022-06-16T12:51:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T19:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/?p=9936"},"modified":"2022-06-16T12:51:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T19:51:00","slug":"housing-activists-work-to-move-the-needle-on-affordability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/housing-activists-work-to-move-the-needle-on-affordability\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing activists work to move the needle on affordability"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is the third in a series looking at how a push for greater density in cities across the country is affecting the multifamily sector.\u00a0Click here<\/a>\u00a0for the second article.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, In My Backyard groups have formed in communities across the country to fight zoning and development practices that they say make housing less affordable.<\/p>\n

What these organizations bring to the table is the ability to quickly and efficiently mobilize activists when housing projects need public support, said Karin Brandt, an urban planner who is the CEO and founder of coUrbanize, a community-engagement platform that helps developers solicit community feedback on proposed projects across North America.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen from a lot of our partners that build housing is that it\u2019s so hard and time-intensive to call in favors from people. \u2018Can you please come to this three-hour hearing on Tuesday night and speak in favor of our housing project?\u2019 is a big ask,\u201d Brandt said.<\/p>\n

YIMBYs often have the means and mechanisms to document support for projects through phone calls, emails and text messages, lowering the barrier for participation, she added.<\/p>\n

Christopher Ptomey, executive director of the Urban Land Institute\u2019s Terwilliger Center for Housing, said YIMBYs bring balance to the housing conversation by calling attention to \u201cneeds that can be addressed through development,\u201d but he doesn\u2019t think that\u2019s enough to turn the tide on the housing crisis and overcome the still-stronger NIMBY movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brandt finds YIMBYs to be a breath of fresh air because they promote all types of housing rather than only affordable housing \u2014 though that causes plenty of controversy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWill increasing the supply lower some of the costs for the lower-tier, more affordable product? That\u2019s very hotly debated, but the research shows that in some places, that does make sense,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

People like Nikolai Fedak, who launched New York YIMBY in 2011, see their pro-development message as necessary to counter major news outlets, which Fedak said \u201ctend to be NIMBY-centric.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But promoting any kind of luxury housing opens up YIMBYs to criticism from both NIMBYs and hard-core affordable housing advocates, who accuse them of being nothing more than shills for high-end developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the get-go, YIMBYs embraced trickle-down economics or what\u2019s now called \u2018trickle-down housing policy,\u2019\u201d journalist Patrick Range McDonald wrote in an article<\/a> on the website for Housing Is a Human Right, an advocacy group for housing justice in California and beyond. \u201cAs middle- and working-class people have long known, trickle-down anything doesn\u2019t work \u2014 except to make the rich richer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ptomey\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>advice to YIMBY groups is to find ways to get broader community input \u201cso you don\u2019t just have a few scheduled evening meetings that people can show up to or Zoom into to provide their voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

YIMBYs need to get out and actively gather input and insights from a wide swath of the community so they can better understand what type of information will compel public response, Ptomey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People respond best to personal questions, he added. \u201cAsk them: \u2018Do you know someone looking for housing?\u2019 \u2018What are the challenges you have?\u2019 \u2018What are the constraints you see for people accessing housing?\u2019 Use it as a way to educate people but also as a way to get constructive information back from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

This item was originally posted here: Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article is the third in a series looking at how a push for greater density in cities across the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1066,457],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-posts","category-construction-dive","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}