The Affordable Housing Crisis is About More Than Interest Rates. It Started Decades Ago With NIMBYism.
I first became acquainted with the acronym NIMBY (“Not In My Backyard”) 20 years ago when plans for a $5 billion megaproject in Brooklyn Atlantic Yards (now named Pacific Park) were first mentioned. Now, the term is synonymous with the housing crisis gripping America.
Atlantic Yards would turn Atlantic Avenue at the crossroads of Flatbush Avenue into a huge transit hub, with an arena (the Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets), shopping, and more. People protesting the development were owners of pricey brownstones in the affluent Prospect Heights/Park Slope enclave, who feared the development would both destroy the neighborhood and possibly hurt their real estate prices. Many small businesses and apartments were demolished under eminent domain in the ensuing years.
Now, Brooklyn is almost unrecognizable, with dozens of expensive new condo developments and real estate prices soaring to astronomical heights, affecting the entire borough and forcing long-time residents out. If homeowners feared their real estate would not appreciate through development, they were wrong.
The Connotations of NIMBYism Have Changed Over The Years
Although the NIMBY movement was unsuccessful in blocking the Atlantic Yards development—and many people might argue that the city was already sliding headfirst into soaring gentrification 20 years ago—there’s no doubt that the term NIMBY has changed a lot since then. It now has negative connotations, with new affordable single-family homes being a casualty of NIMBYs, whose efforts have stalled development and, according to the New York Times, “increased racial segregation, deepened wealth inequality, and are robbing the next generation of the American dream.”
The acronym first entered the public arena in the early 1980s to describe neighbors who fought against apartment developments. NIMBY activists were seen as protectors of their neighborhoods and communities. With the price explosion across the U.S., the term has become synonymous with keeping people out and prices high.
A Web of Complex Issues
NIMBYs and their opposites, YIMBYs (“Yes, In My Backyard”), also known as YIMBYism, have been at loggerheads now for decades. One is a proponent of high-density development (YIMBYs), and the other is against it.
In the middle is a complex web of politics, finance, transfer taxes, zoning laws, historical racial segregation, affordable housing, transit, sewer lines, quality of life issues, and more. Such has been the power of NIMBYism in stopping development that California governor Gavin Newsom told the San Francisco Chronicle: “NIMBYism is destroying the state.”
Once, developers were seen as the bad guys, lining their pockets at the cost of valuable green space and close-knit communities. Now, with a homeless epidemic and an affordable housing crisis gripping the U.S., the reverse seems true. As the median home price of a single-family home in America jumps over $425,000, developers are needed to build affordable homes for people sleeping in their cars, on the streets, or on their parents’ couches.
The cost of building housing and the roadblocks it entails is a contentious issue with no easy answers. The loss of parks, trees, natural habitats, and historical buildings is all part of what makes a community what it is.
On the other side, YIMBYs contend NIMBYs and homeowners associations with similar interests are driven by the fear of losing what they have and a decline in the local school system and neighborhood instead of welcoming others in.
Black Neighborhoods Have Never Been Part of the Discussion
Race has been at the center of development issues for decades in America. The term NIMBY is often associated with white neighborhoods. In contrast, historically, Black neighborhoods had no such community-based voice to protect their assets.
For example, in 1957, the Bethel AME church was demolished under eminent domain in Pittsburgh’s famous Hill District to make room for the Civic Arena. Angering residents at the time was the fact that a neighboring Catholic church attended by Whites was allowed to remain.
Bethel AME was founded in 1808 and was a cornerstone in the community. It was the site of Pittsburgh’s first Black elementary school and a stop on the Underground Railroad. Over 8,000 residents were forced to relocate, most receiving little to no compensation for their homes.
“We had nobody we could go to and sue in the ’50s,” said Rev. Dale Snyder, Bethel’s current pastor, citing the racial violence they could face for making “too much noise.”
Diamonte Walker, deputy executive director of the URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority), is a fifth-generation Hill resident. “The way that development was done in years prior has been historically and emotionally harmful, particularly to Black people,” she said. “…There is no dollar amount that I think could ever repair and mend the breach of what was lost when Bethel was demolished.”
With Pittsburgh in the midst of a housing crunch due to escalating home prices, the church’s old site has become invaluable. Ice hockey team the Pittsburgh Penguins had development rights for the site, but last year chose to give it back to the church in a heartwarming gesture.
“Our neighborhood don’t need these shiny buildings, we need affordable housing,” Bethel AME pastor Snyder said during the announcement. “If you want to take your millions of dollars and go somewhere else, do that. But if you’re staying, talk to the people.”
NIMBY vs. YIMBY Is a Nationwide Issue
Nowhere is the NIMBY movement more prevalent than in New York‘s Long Island. Nassau County town and village leaders are furious about New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s plans to allow faith-based housing to be built from churches and mosques in neighborhoods that New Yorkers initially fled to in an effort to escape overcrowding in the city. This faith-based housing is a way to tackle the affordable housing crisis.
“They want to turn suburbia into an urban disaster,” Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino told CBS News about the proposal.
In a move that has become synonymous with everything NIMBY opposes, new bills would allow houses of worship to circumvent local zoning laws and build high-density affordable housing on their tax-exempt land. “It’s an attack on local zoning, make no mistake. It changes the fabric of our communities,” state Sen. Jack Martins told CBS News.
A similar war was waged in east Killian in Miami‘s South Dade County, where local residents of the mostly single-family community opposed the construction of a 216-bed assisted living facility in their neighborhood. The NIMBY Killian residents were victorious, as a plan to rezone failed after years of struggle. Residents were concerned that changing the zoning laws could lead to more developments.
“Zoning has to be compatible with the existing neighborhood, what’s called ‘reasonable use,’” Frank Schnidman, retired professor of land use at Florida Atlantic University, told FloridaBulldog.org. “This is disrupting, aimed at increasing activity, which only increases the value for the property owner for increased profit on the property.”
Single-family zoning accounts for 87% of residential space in Miami-Dade. The influx of wealthy new residents and lack of available space to build multifamily housing has put the area in the crosshairs of the fight for affordable housing and a change in the zoning laws. The median home value in the area sits at $650,000 as of May 2024, reflecting a 6% year-over-year increase in house price despite other parts of Florida showing contractions.
Final Thoughts
In an election year, the cost of housing and the lack of affordable single-family homes are hot-button topics. Across the country, NIMBYs and YIMBYs are gearing up for epic battles.
In Florida, Governor DeSantis found himself an unlikely adversary for upscale municipalities for passing the Live Local Act into law in March, which allows taller, denser buildings. However, DeSantis recently amended the law to allow less affordable housing than initially proposed.
In the Bronx, New York, City Council member Marjorie Velázquez supported a rezoning in Throggs Neck that would allow for 349 apartments, nearly half of which would be permanently affordable—only to lose her Council seat in November to Republican Kristy Marmorato.
California governor Gavin Newsom intervened on behalf of YIMBYs to green-light Cedar Street Partners’ application to build an 80-unit mixed-use project in La Cañada Flintridge after local NIMBY opposition. “La Cañada Flintridge is another community making excuses rather than building their fair share of housing,” Newsom said.
In a heated political climate, expect the chronic need for affordable single-family housing to be in the news daily, with both politicians, along with NIMBYs and YIMBYs, claiming to have workable solutions to the housing crisis. At the center of it will be interest rates and the cost-of-living crisis gripping America.
More affordable housing is desperately needed, but how the country gets it is another matter.
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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.
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