Could Kamala Harris be the first YIMBY president?

Amid a worsening housing and homelessness crisis, the defining political fight in San Francisco for more than a decade has been between pro-development YIMBYs and slow-growth NIMBYs.

Now, with a Bay Area politician as a major party nominee, Kamala Harris may become the first YIMBY president of the United States.

Tucked inside her newly unveiled economic agenda last week was a proclamation that housing activists never thought they’d hear from a presidential candidate. 

“There’s a serious housing shortage,” Harris said to an enthusiastic audience of supporters in Raleigh, N.C. “In many places, it is too difficult to build, and it’s driving prices up.”

She followed the statement with a pledge that wouldn’t feel out of place at a YIMBY rally. 

“We will take down barriers and cut down red tape, including at the state and local levels,” she said. “And by the end of my first term, we will end America’s housing shortage by building 3 million new homes and rentals that are affordable for the middle class.” 

How the Harris administration will go about making good on those promises remains unclear. Her policy announcement last week specifically mentioned only the planned introduction of a $25,000 subsidy for first-time homebuyers.

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment on whether she considers herself a YIMBY. 

Even with the thin details, local pro-housing advocates latched onto the speech as a rallying cry and validation of their efforts. State Sen. Scott Wiener, perhaps the biggest YIMBY supporter in the California Legislature, released a reaction video to Harris’ speech. 

“I’m so excited — being a YIMBY is now cool and presidential,” Wiener tweeted.

“The policies aren’t new, but what feels different this time around is the shift in rhetoric,” said Laura Foote, executive director at YIMBY Action. 

“Recognizing that there is a problem is half the battle,” Foote added. “The fact that Harris is calling [the housing shortage] out and says the government has a role to play is huge — she’s using our language.” 

Assemblymember Alex Lee, who has led efforts in the state Legislature to create a public housing development agency, said it was exciting to see a presidential candidate make housing a key pillar of their campaign. 

“It’s becoming more mainstream and bipartisan to talk about housing,” Lee told The Standard after watching Harris’ speech. “Hopefully, this emboldens more candidates across every level of government to take the crisis more seriously.” 

While the push to make housing more affordable is old hat at the local level, it rarely filters up to the national political discourse in the same way.

Julian E. Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University, said George W. Bush is the only president he could think of in recent memory who prioritized housing affordability as a key policy standpoint. 

Bush’s signing of the American Dream Downpayment Act in 2003 set aside tens of millions for down-payment assistance. Homeownership peaked under his administration at nearly 70% but has since fallen to about 65%, according to census data. 

But Zelizer said the positive impacts of Bush’s policies were largely overshadowed by the subprime mortgage crisis and the subsequent Great Recession. 

In an election expected to be decided on the margins and in a few battleground states, Harris’ focus on a populist agenda has strategic merit, observers say.  

“When you talk about a chronic [housing] shortage brought on by regulations, the people who want to solve that fall on both sides of the political aisle,” said Foote. 

A small but growing number of federal elected officials have also publicly adopted the YIMBY banner; most prominently, Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz.

Alongside his Republican colleague Idaho Sen. Todd Young, Schatz introduced the YIMBY Act, which would require certain local governments that receive federal grant money to report how they are lowering barriers to housing production.

For his part, former President Donald Trump has never taken a formal housing position in his policy agenda outside of attempts to paint himself as the protector of America’s suburbs by accusing opponents of seeking to “forcibly transform” neighborhoods through high-density zoning. 

The down-payment assistance program that Harris has pitched may be a welcome boost to middle- and lower-class households, but it would do little to bring down housing costs. 

“Addressing only the demand side of the housing equation is not enough,” said Derek Kaufman, CEO of the Inclusive Abundance Initiative, a national nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for expanded economic opportunities for all. “Focusing on increasing supply is key.”

“The fact that there is momentum for cutting red tape and offering federal support for new housing is an important first step,” Kaufman said. 

Kaufman said levers that could induce housing production include establishing a national database of zoning laws or providing technical assistance to municipalities that want to increase density but lack the manpower or expertise. 

Armand Domalewski, lead organizer for YIMBYS for Harris, said he was moved to start the campaign after other affinity groups such as White Dudes for Harris and #WinWithBlackWomen attracted hundreds of thousands of supporters and raised millions of dollars. 

Momentum to rally around the president with YIMBY voters kicked into gear when Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — a favorite among pro-housing advocates — as her running mate.

Domalewski said his group has more than 700 members after about two weeks and this month will host a digital fundraising event featuring Wiener, Mayor London Breed, other politicians from around the country, and journalist Matt Yglesias.

“I would like to see the White House take more of a stand on housing and set the tone for state legislatures to follow,” Domalewski said. 

Wiener agreed and would like to see the federal government use more of its leverage — even over non-housing-related funds — to incentivize local governments to adopt more pro-housing policies in exchange. 

“Extreme anti-housing regulations at the local and state levels got us into this crisis,” Wiener told The Standard. “For her to specifically refer to moving away from those policies is a profoundly important moment.”