“Not In My Back Yard”
Removing Barriers to Affordable Housing, 1991

NIMBY, thy name is you. (No offense to Shakespeare intended)

by Mark Yaravitz

Here is a report on housing from 1991.
This was a report presented to President Bush and HUD Secretary Jack Kemp (former quarterback of Buffalo Bills NFL) by the Advisory Commission on Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing.

In this report it states that the two biggest impediments to affordable housing are : government land use regulations and NIMBYs.

Nothing has changed in 33 years. The housing problems get worse and the supply side solutions are attacked at every level. Gentrification is at our door step. Trophy homes abound.

From the report (it speaks for itself):

“Numerous Federal, State, and LOCAL regulations that are intended to achieve specific admiral goals, turn out to have NEGATIVE consequences for affordable housing.” P8

“Perhaps the most potent and, to date ( 1991 ), intractable cause of regulatory barriers to affordable housing is NIMBY sentiment at the individual, neighborhood, and community levels. Residents who say “Not In My Backyard” may be expressing opposition to specific types of housing, to changes in the character of the community, to certain levels of growth, to any and all development, or to economic, racial, or ethnic heterogeneity”

“In any case, the intention is to exclude, resist change, or inhibit growth.” p 8

“The personal basis of NIMBY involves fear of change in either the physical environment or composition of a community. It can variously reflect concern about property values, service levels, fiscal impacts, community ambience, the environment, or public health and safety. Its more perverse manifestations reflect racial or ethnic prejudice masquerading under the guise of these other concerns.”

“NIMBY sentiment -frequently widespread and deeply ingrained- is so powerful because it easily is translatable into government action, …..Current residents and organized neighborhood groups can exert great influence over local electoral and land-development processes, to the exclusion of non-residents, prospective residents, or for that matter all outsiders. Restrictions on affordable housing are the result.”

“As a person sometimes ignores mysterious ailments in dread of an operation, so the public ignores the mounting social ills the lack of affordable shelter causes, simply to avoid the pain of the cure. No matter that the reaction is irrational. Emotions follow no logic, and the emotion behind NIMBY is fear.” June Fletcher, Builder July 1990. 

The reality is that we have a serious housing problem at most levels.

I was told by a Taos County Commissioner that the housing problem was its number one priority.

Commissioners do not build housing.
The Taos Housing Partnership will not be building houses.
Only developers with developments build housing.
This problem cannot be cured over night.
This problem cannot be cured at all if you do not take the first step.

Mark Yaravitz is a Real Estate Broker and a 48 year resident of Taos County. He admits to living in a trophy home.