Yes in my backyard: Democrats are changing their tune on housing policy

Kamala Harris’ platform calls for building 3 million homes in her first term to help alleviate the housing crisis. It’s what YIMBYs have been waiting for. 

It’s YIMBYs’ time to shine.

Pro-housing advocates have long pushed for so-called housing abundance at the local level. Now they finally have a presidential ticket that explicitly echoes their agenda.

These activists and their diverse coalition — who call themselves YIMBYs, for “yes in my backyard” — have sprung into action to support Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. On Wednesday night, they held a two-hour virtual “YIMBYs for Harris” fundraiser featuring dozens of local, state, and federal lawmakers who believe in building lots more housing.

Pro-housing advocates say Harris’ proposal to build 3 million homes in her first term, in part through cutting government regulations restricting construction, feels like a big shift toward addressing the country’s housing shortage. It doesn’t hurt that Harris selected as her running mate a governor who has championed pro-housing policies in office.

Harris and other top Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, highlighted the housing shortage in their speeches at the Democratic National Convention — sending YIMBYs into a tizzy. Democrats in Washington have long supported demand-side housing policies, including subsidies for homebuyers and low-income renters. But recent national messaging on the issue has focused much more squarely on solving the supply shortage, which is particularly severe in blue states and cities where onerous permitting requirements, environmental reviews, and opposition from so-called NIMBYs — “not in my backyard” — have hamstrung efforts to build more homes.

“There’s always been Democrats saying we should fund more affordable housing,” Armand Domalewski, a San Francisco-based data analyst who helped organize YIMBYs for Harris, told B-17. What’s new on the national stage, he added, is “the perspective that part of the issue is local and state governments obstructing housing.”

Shortly after Domalewski set up a WhatsApp group for pro-housing voters about three weeks ago, “it just exploded,” he said. About 300 people are in the chat, he said, and the group estimated that about 6,000 people attended Wednesday’s virtual fundraiser, which raised more than $100,000.

Sen. Brian Schatz, a headliner at the fundraiser, argued that his party was experiencing a “generational shift” in its approach to housing. He’s called Harris “the first presidential nominee in at least a generation that cares about housing.” Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado similarly described Harris at the event as “the most pro-housing president in the history of the United States.”

“We want somebody that is actually going to work to solve the problem of the housing shortage,” Schatz said. “And the simplest way to solve the problem of the housing shortage is to make it permissible for people to build as much housing as they can, especially for working people.”

Rep. Robert Garcia, a 46-year-old California Democrat who’s been one of the loudest urbanist voices in Congress, noted in his remarks during the fundraiser that he was organizing the first YIMBY congressional caucus.

The fact that housing policy is high on the list of national Democratic priorities indicates how severe the affordability crisis has gotten. Harris, Obama, and other top Democrats aren’t suddenly YIMBY converts — they’re talking about the housing shortage because Americans are more worried about it. In a recent survey, 83% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans said they thought a lack of affordable housing was a significant problem.

Former President Donald Trump hasn’t said much on the campaign trail about housing, though he and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, have argued they could solve the supply shortage by deporting millions of immigrants.

Several speakers at the YIMBY fundraiser argued that, despite being the anti-regulation party, Republicans had embraced red tape that limits what can be built and where. In the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 agenda, Ben Carson, who was Trump’s secretary of housing and urban development, wrote that Republicans should “oppose any efforts to weaken single-family zoning.”