The YIMBY Law
HR351: Yes In My Backyard Act
The Yes in My Backyard (YIMBY) Act encourages localities to eliminate discriminatory land use policies and remove barriers that prevent needed housing from being built around the country. The YIMBY Act achieves these goals by requiring Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) recipients to report periodically on the extent to which they are removing discriminatory land use policies and implementing inclusive and affordable housing policies detailed by the bill. The YIMBY Act increases transparency in land use, zoning, and housing decisions; sheds light on exclusionary polices; and ultimately encourage localities to eliminate barriers to much-needed housing. - Up For Growth
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The Current Problem
• Underproduction: United States has underproduced housing by 7.3 million homes from 2000–2015.1
• Exclusionary Land Use Policies: Zoning and density restrictions, and other burdensome development regulations — drive a severe housing shortage and affordability crisis.2
• Rising Housing Cost: Housing is the single largest increase in household budgets in the last 15 years and that the median US family now spends 42% of its income on housing.
• Racism and Classism: existence perpetuates housing discrimination and contributes to the housing affordability crisis affecting large parts of the United States.5
The YMBI Legislative Solution
The YIMBY Act increases inclusive development practices by requiring localities to fully examine and disclose their housing policy decisions.
The bill provides localities a framework for smart policymaking and regulatory practices, thus promoting more inclusive development principles.
The YIMBY Act is an important first step in decreasing the barriers to smart, inclusive growth and reducing the negative and cumulative impact of exclusionary housing policies. It is also a way to clearly demonstrate that the federal government takes seriously the challenges created by exclusionary zoning.