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YIMBY Action is a 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofit organization that advocates for more housing production. According to the Brookings Institution, YIMBY Action is the largest YIMBY organization in the United States. It is a national umbrella group that provides resources to dozens of local chapters across the United States of America.[1] As of 2018, YIMBY Action had 2,100 dues-paying members, local chapters in San Francisco neighborhoods, and 140 chapters.[2]

History

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2014-2017: Founding

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YIMBY Action arose from the confluence of prior factors. There was a growing chorus from academic researchers and thought leaders such as Edward Glaeser, a Harvard University professor of economics, and Matthew Yglesias, then a writer for Slate Magazine, that excessive land-use laws were causing housing to become more expensive. At the same time, a new generation of young adults were finding housing very expensive, and able to connect and organize on platforms such as Twitter.[3]: 24  And in the San Francisco Bay Area, where an economic boom after the 2008 financial crisis created new jobs and sent rents soaring, some residents protested symbols of the ascendant tech industry, including shuttle bus protests from 2013.[3]: 13, 24–25  The historical factors linking land use, the economy and the tech industry were tied together in a 2014 article written by Kim-Mai Cutler for Techcrunch called "How Burrowing Owls Lead to Vomiting Anarchists (Or SF's Housing Crisis Explained)".[4]

In 2014, Sonja Trauss began giving public comment at government meetings across the Bay Area in support of new housing projects to address the city's high housing costs. She named her nascent, unincorporated organization the San Francisco Bay Area Renters' Federation.[3]: 1–13  Sonja Trauss and Brian Hanlon founded the California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund (CaRLA) as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to sue cities that unlawfully denied housing.[3]: 104 

Around 2015, Laura Foote (then Laura Foote Clark), Austin Hunter, and Annie Fryman started an organization called Grow SF with the intent to organize politically around housing.[3]: 127 [5]: 159  For the 2016 elections, Foote and Trauss created an independent expenditure committee called YIMBY PAC to advertise for candidates like Scott Wiener for California State Senate.[3]: 130 

The political activism learned from the 2016 elections was professionalized into YIMBY Action in 2017, with Laura Foote as the Executive Director.[3]: 130, 138 

2017: Incremental Progress in California Legislative Achievements

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YIMBY Action advocated for housing bills in the California legislature's 2017 session, including SB 35, a bill that would allow certain housing projects to be approved faster and with more certainty.[3]: 138 . With the help of that advocacy, the California legislature passed a "housing package" of bills in 2017, leading to numerous articles about the strength of the YIMBY movement.[3]: 142 [6][2]

In San Francisco, YIMBY Action (under the local chapter SF YIMBY) successfully advocated for HOME-SF, a "density bonus bill" that allows homebuilders to build more homes in exchange for reserving more homes for lower-income households, with the support of Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor Katy Tang.[5]: 184–185 

2018: Mixed Results

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After incremental success in 2017, YIMBY Action championed a much bolder bill: California State Senator Scott Wiener's California Senate Bill 827 (SB 827), which would legalize apartment buildings four to eight stories tall near rail stations and bus stops. While generating a lot of attention, the bill was killed in committee.[3]: 194–195  A few housing bills such as Senate Bill 828, changing California's Regional Housing Needs Assessment process, passed.[7]

In San Francisco, the death of Mayor Ed Lee led to a special election for mayor. Housing was a policy issue during the campaign.[8] YIMBY Action supported London Breed, who was the only candidate that supported Wiener's SB 827 and who ran on a self-described pro-housing platform. During the campaign, Breed attributed high housing costs to a constrained housing supply.[9] Breed won a close election, defeating Mark Leno with 50.6% of the vote (a 2,536 vote margin) in the final runoff. The election victory was called a watershed movement for the YIMBY movement.[2] As Mayor, Breed pledged to build more housing by removing unnecessary regulation.[10]

YIMBY Action attempted to bring a housing streamlining ballot measure to San Francisco voters for the June 2018 election, but it failed due to lack of funding.[11][3]: 219 

In the 2018 San Francisco Board of Supervisors election, YIMBY Action endorsed candidates did not win. In particular, early founder Sonja Trauss's campaign for District 6 supervisor fell short, losing to Matt Haney.[12][13]

2019-Present

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In February 2021, YIMBY Action filed a lawsuit alleging that the California Department of Housing and Community Development underestimated the San Francisco Bay Area's housing needs (Regional Housing Needs Assessment).[14][15]

In the 2022 California's 17th State Assembly district special election, YIMBY Action supported Matt Haney in "one of the most housing-focused campaigns the city has seen in recent history". Haney's victory was seen as a coup for YIMBY activists and the organization.[16]

In March 2022, YIMBY Action filed an San Francisco initiative to speed up development of affordable housing and educator housing in San Francisco. It requires 52,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot.[17][18]

Notes

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  1. ^ Pearson, Cassidy; Schuetz, Jenny (2022-03-31). "Where pro-housing groups are emerging". Brookings Institution. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  2. ^ a b c Dineen, J.K. (2018-11-01). "How powerful is Bay Area's pro-housing movement? Election day will show us". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Dougherty, 2020
  4. ^ Cutler, Kim-Mai (2014-04-14). "How Burrowing Owls Lead To Vomiting Anarchists (Or SF's Housing Crisis Explained)". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  5. ^ a b Shaw, 2018
  6. ^ McCormick, Erin (2017-10-02). "Rise of the yimbys: the angry millennials with a radical housing solution". The Guardian. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  7. ^ Schneider, Benjamin (2021-01-25). "Bay Area Takes Step Toward Major Housing Growth". SF Weekly. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  8. ^ Dineen, J.K. (2018-06-02). "Housing a defining issue in SF mayor's race". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  9. ^ Breed, London (2018-01-30). "An Affordable City for ALL of Us". London Breed. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  10. ^ Fracassa, Dominic (2018-07-11). "Big crowd at SF Civic Center sees London Breed sworn in as new mayor". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  11. ^ Barba, Michael (2018-03-28). "SF Yimby campaign $40K in debt over delayed ballot measure". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  12. ^ "Post-Election Thoughts: Big Spenders, YIMBY Retreat, a Breed Rebuke, & More". The Frisc. 2018-11-07. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  13. ^ Mojadad, Ida. "Trauss Trounced in YIMBY Litmus Test". SF Weekly. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  14. ^ Bay City News (2021-02-06). "Housing advocates challenge state's calculation of Bay Area housing needs". The San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
  15. ^ Schneider, Benjamin (2021-02-04). "YIMBYs Sue for Even More Housing Via RHNA". SF Weekly. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
  16. ^ Gardiner, Dustin (2022-04-20). "Matt Haney's Assembly victory is a coup for YIMBY activists seeking to align with S.F. progressives". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
  17. ^ Wright, Sarah (2022-03-04). "YIMBY Takes Another Swing at Housing Reform With New Ballot Initiative". San Francisco Standard. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
  18. ^ Dineen, J. K. (2022-04-04). "After being rejected by S.F. supervisors, a charter to streamline housing could go to the voters". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-05-18.

References

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Dougherty, Conor (2020). Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America. Penguin Press. ISBN 9780525560210.

Shaw, Randy (2018). Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520299122.

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"YIMBY Action Internal Revenue Service filings". ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.

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