As the YIMBY movement goes mainstream, the pro-development push has an eager ally in the Senate.
Sen. Brian Schatz, who has had a hand in several federal programs aimed at increasing the housing supply, said in an interview with Slate he became “aggressively” YIMBY after realizing exclusionary zoning emerged in the aftermath of Jim Crow as another way to continue racist practices and keep Black homeowners out of affluent neighborhoods.
The Democrat from Hawaii has since thrown his weight around behind initiatives like an $85 million grant program geared towards the “identification and removal of barriers to affordable housing production and preservation.”
Included in December’s appropriations bill, the program marked the first YIMBY provision in federal history, according to Schatz.
The senator also co-authored the bipartisan Yes in My Backyard Act, which would force jurisdictions receiving federal housing aid to report on their zoning practices. Schatz said the bill could “depolarize” the issue, acknowledging instantly changing zoning practices to support more housing isn’t possible.
When asked about why housing is seemingly ignored in presidential elections, Schatz said the issue has “been a back burner because it’s considered local,” but has grown into a national issue.
“The change now is that it’s not just San Francisco and Honolulu and New York City and a few other places that are experiencing a shortage of housing,” Schatz said. “It’s every place across the country. So, this is a national issue, whether we like it or not.”
Schatz noted it was a backburner issue because it seemed local to places like San Francisco and New York. That’s no longer the case, though.
“It’s every place across the country. So, this is a national issue, whether we like it or not,” Schatz emphasized.
— Holden Walter-Warner