Who’s In My Backyard? The Yimby vs. Nimby Debate

By Aries Ramirez, written in 2021

In San Diego, renters need to make $38 an hour to afford our median rent of $2,008, about three times more than our minimum wage. While the incomes that we have here are significantly too low for our cost of living, it isn’t our only problem– we’re also short on houses. To meet these needs, we need 136,631 more.

While we can all agree that we need these houses to be affordable, accessible, and safe, there’s an intense fight about where we put these new developments.

The two competing groups in this argument are the Yes In My Back Yard and Not In My Back Yard movements, otherwise known as NIMBY and YIMBY. They’re on opposite ends of the fight for where and how affordable housing developments should be built.

YIMBY argues that we should be trying to end the affordable housing crisis by welcoming these new affordable housing developments in our neighborhoods and reforming legislation. On the other hand, NIMBY argues that we shouldn’t be developing affordable housing in their neighborhoods out of fear of what could happen. Sometimes NIMBY’s can agree that we need these affordable housing developments, it's best to do them somewhere else.

This isn’t a partisan issue between red and blue either, it’s a question of how we should serve and provide for our communities. God asks us to welcome those who are in need, but why should we support YIMBY beyond that?

Access to affordable housing has been one of the reasons why this crisis has continued to escalate. We can see this here in San Diego when we look at the skyrocketing costs of homes, the plateau of wage increases, and the number of homeless people in our county.

Experts from UCLA agree that the skyrocketing cost of housing, specifically rent, has been one of the main causes of homelessness across California. When people are spending a majority of their paychecks on rent, they’re less and less capable of saving money for any emergency that might come up. This means thousands of San Diegans inevitably find themselves only one paycheck away from losing the place they call home.

Another reason for this crisis is the lack of affordable housing units being constructed and maintained their status in the county. The number of affordable housing units has dropped by 72% in San Diego since 2000. 

The number of these units continues to decrease while the need has increased significantly over time, especially with the beginning of the pandemic. There’s simply not enough options for those who would benefit from being able to rent according to their income.

The NIMBY movement has played a large role in stunting the growth of cost-friendly apartments and homes. NIMBY groups have actively worked to fight against new developments in their areas, as they fear what this might bring to their communities

Unfortunately, this quickly becomes a fight against poor people and communities of color to uphold segregation.

We can’t just shut NIMBY out or shame them for how they feel about starting these developments either. It’s okay to have concerns about what gets put in your neighborhood and we can’t ignore that fact. No one wants a landfill, a nuclear power plant, or a water treatment center in their neighborhood, and those are the real issues that NIMBY should be fighting for today.

To ask ourselves if we should be sending those who need affordable housing away from better opportunities though is a different moral dilemma. Some people are afraid that low-income people will bring crime to their neighborhoods, but Harvard studies show that mixed-income communities created by placing these affordable housing units in wealthier areas make neighborhoods safer. 

If one of our core missions is to help others and be inclusive, we can’t stand idly by as people continue to suffer from this housing crisis. Thankfully, we see groups like LA Voice and YIGBY trying to make change by incentivizing churches to build affordable housing on spare land.

This movement towards building affordable housing in our communities is just one part of a larger solution to the problem. Simply creating more affordable housing by saying yes to building them in your neighborhood will not solve all of California’s or San Diego’s housing and homeless issues. It’s not an overnight fix or something that will cure us. 

We need a holistic approach and team effort to beat this crisis that includes boosting financial literacy, creating affordable housing, increasing wages, and increasing social support for those who may be struggling. 

It’s possible without losing the incredible things we love about our neighborhoods.

Changes don’t have to be a bad thing. We’ll learn more from the increased diversity that’ll come, increasing the number of meaningful connections we can make with other people.

The fact of the matter is that new housing isn’t going to appear in California. Especially now, when millions of Americans have become unemployed due to the pandemic, we can’t keep slowing down the process by waiting for someone else to do something about this crisis. We need to become aware of these issues and make critical changes in our community by becoming advocates for each other.

It’s time for us to step up to the plate to welcome those who need affordable housing into our communities and create a social safety net for those who are struggling that includes financial literacy, food pantries, mental health services, and a community to fall back on. God’s presence is often shown to us in the image of a stranger, so let’s not miss the call to welcome him in today.