Democrats Embrace YIMBY Ideas

National Democratic leaders are honing a YIMBY message targeting high housing costs, building a platform that appeals to housing advocates that want to see more action at the federal level.

As Kriston Capps explains in Bloomberg CityLab, Vice President Kamala Harris is developing her own housing agenda in a similar direction. “So far, she has endorsed and expanded upon several executive actions taken under President Joe Biden, including calls for a rent cap on corporate landlords and down-payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. Several Harris campaign proposals — although not all of them — are geared toward ramping up US production, with a goal of building some 3 million new homes during her first term.”

For the first time, federal lawmakers are looking more closely at corporate investors and the financialization of housing, which can push out smaller buyers and lead to evictions. However, Urban Institute researchers point out that institutional investors are more of a ‘scapegoat’ that own a small percentage of U.S. homes. The UI report notes that “even in fast-growing markets with rising prices, investor interest is a symptom of a lack of housing, not a cause of it.” A Biden proposal to institute a nationwide rent cap has been called another stopgap measure that doesn’t address the root causes of the housing crisis.

Meanwhile, efforts to incentivize cities and states to reform outdated zoning laws that perpetuate sprawl and high housing costs are receiving more widespread support. “Partisans from across the political spectrum agree about the need to shake up local zoning codes, even using the power of the purse to do so.”