YIMBY

The YIMBY (; or yimby, an acronym for the phrase for "yes in my back yard") movement, or YIMBYism, is a pro-housing social movement that focuses on encouraging new housing, opposing density limits (such as single-family zoning) and other housing supply regulations, and supporting public transportation. It stands in opposition to residents it calls NIMBY ("not in my back yard"), referring to those who generally oppose most forms of urban development in order to maintain the status quo, typically low-density suburban housing. As an organized movement in the United States, the YIMBY movement began in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 2010s amid a housing affordability crisis and has subsequently become a potent political force in local, state, and national politics in the United States. The YIMBY position supports increasing the supply of housing within cities where housing costs have escalated to unaffordable levels. They have also supported infrastructure development projects like improving housing development (especially for affordable housing or trailer parks), high-speed rail lines, homeless shelters, day cares, schools, universities and colleges, bike lanes, and pedestrian safety infrastructure. YIMBYs often seek rezoning that would allow more housing units to be produced per area or the repurposing of obsolete buildings, such as shopping malls, into housing. Cities that have adopted YIMBY policies have seen substantial increase in housing supply and reductions in rent. YIMBYism is about more than zoning laws, but to prioritise a developmental rather than stasis oriented property system "against a gentry of incumbent landowners who favor preservation of the built environment and protection of their vested rights in the zoned status quo." The YIMBY movement has supporters across the political spectrum, including left-leaning adherents who believe housing production is a social justice issue, free-market libertarian proponents who think the supply of housing should not be regulated...