Social Housing: Challenging YIMBYs and NIMBYs
Joint statement from FTC Manning (SF Community Land Trust—SFCLT), Quintin Mecke (Council of Community Housing Organizations—CCHO), and Shanti Singh (Tenants Together)
What we’re doing on housing isn’t working. We’ve upzoned, streamlined, deregulated. We’ve chased the promise of supply-side solutions. And still, the crisis deepens. Across San Francisco and the state, we’re told that zoning and deregulation will solve the housing crisis. But real solutions require more than zoning maps — they need public investment, tenant protections, and community-led planning that puts people before profit. Deregulation is politically convenient. It makes headlines without asking the wealthy to pay. It shifts blame from capital to planners. It offers the illusion of action—without the substance of redistribution. But it doesn’t build homes for restaurant workers earning $40,000 a year. It doesn’t produce family-sized units. It doesn’t build trust, or coalitions, or equity. Because deregulation isn’t housing policy. It’s land-use policy. And land-use reform without capital isn’t a solution. It’s a stall... There is a movement waiting to be built—beyond the tired binary of YIMBY and NIMBY. One rooted in care, solidarity, and the belief that everyone deserves a place to live.
The dangerous fantasy of upzoning, by Fernando Marti, 48 Hills
Comments from a market rate developer about the real impediments to developing housing (hint: it’s not zoning regulations) and the real motivation behind the YIMBY push for measures like San Francisco’s family zoning plan (and, by extension, Berkeley’s Middle Housing Ordinance).