What Does ‘YIMBY’ Mean?

What is a YIMBY?

YIMBY, or “Yes In My Backyard,” is a grassroots movement dedicated to fixing America’s severe housing shortage. Experts agree that the dearth of new housing development, especially in cities, has been driving up housing prices for decades.

For YIMBYs, the fight for affordable housing is personal — many of us have suffered at the hands of a brutal housing market, which can affect every aspect of a person’s life. This goes beyond the struggle to find a house that fits your budget, since high prices can mean:

  • moving far away from work or community to find affordable housing,

  • commuting for hours a day to jobs or families,

  • spending years on waitlists for income-qualified housing,

  • or even experiencing homelessness.

YIMBYs understand that the best way to address the housing crisis is to build more housing in the places we already live — right here in our proverbial backyards! This also helps address so many of the other crises we face today:

  • Reducing the need for lengthy car commutes, reducing our collective exposure to pollutants and lowering our carbon footprint.

  • Reducing homelessness and overall housing insecurity, which also helps improve public safety.

  • Bringing home ownership within reach for more American families, especially in high cost-of-living areas.

  • Increasing the overall quality of public transit so that it becomes naturally competitive to commuting by car.

Being a YIMBY does NOT mean:

  • Hating suburbs — building denser housing in cities makes life in the suburbs more affordable, more accessible, and more climate friendly. Dense housing does not always mean building giant high-rises everywhere.

  • Hating cars — building more housing closer to where people live and work reduces car traffic for those that need to drive.

The History of the YIMBY Movement

In the 1980’s, people who advocated for stricter land use regulation, especially zoning for exclusively single family homes, and who fought against real estate and infrastructure development, proudly adopted the label of NIMBYs (“Not In My Back Yard!”) for themselves, as they saw themselves as neighborhood defenders. In the 21st century, as the impact of these restrictive policies became more pronounced, pro-housing advocates coined the YIMBY (“Yes in my Backyard”) label as counterpoint. YIMBYs want to address the artificial housing shortage by making it easier to build more homes, especially where people most desire to live and therefore there is the most competition.

When exclusionary land use regulations and community barriers to development are eliminated, it makes it easier to build. As cities around the U.S. loosen regulations on building multifamily housing, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and other creative housing solutions, we are bolstering supply, and stabilizing or bringing down prices for everyone.