Since Kamala Harris’ ascendance to the top of the Democratic ticket, identity groups have been forming to rally for her campaign. There were Black Men for Harris and #WinWithBlackWomen. Then came the (intentionally?) cringe White Dudes for Harris. Heck, even 30,000 Swifties got together this week on a Zoom call and registered voters while raising $122,000.
Now, with a Bay Area politician as a major-party nominee, a pro-housing development coalition is getting in on the action. On Wednesday, an online audience of more than 20,000 joined a virtual “YIMBYs for Harris” event to talk about housing affordability issues and send a message to the nominee who has wholeheartedly embraced the coalition’s language around increased density and production mandates.
Taylor Swift might be pop music’s biggest star, but the YIMBYs just raised more money than her rabid fans. After a three-hour rally featuring stump speeches and testimony from elected officials and activists, the YIMBYs for Harris event raised $125,000 and counting, according to Armand Domalewski, the San Francisco-based organizer of the call.
This came on the heels of last week’s Democratic National Convention, when local YIMBY activists were ecstatic to hear their pro-housing rhetoric spouted from officials at the highest levels of government. In her acceptance speech, Harris pledged to build 3 million new homes in her first term as president and explicitly called for an end to “America’s housing shortage.”
Never before has a presidential candidate taken such a position on housing, Domalewski said a few hours before taking to the (virtual) stage in nothing but star-spangled overalls to kick off “YIMBY-chella.” It was time to strike.
“We want the Democratic Party to convey that being a YIMBY, being pro-housing, is what it means to be a Democrat,” he said. “A lot of the enthusiasm we have is from California elected officials who have been dealing with this forever.”
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Officials participating on the call included Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis — all of whom have long been supportive of pro-housing-supply policies. Each ended their speech with a sign-off that included proudly embracing the YIMBY label.
“When we say we’re going to address child poverty or close the wealth gap, the way we do that is to address housing,” Moore said. “We have to make sure we have the right partners in Washington who get that.”
Since the housing and homelessness crisis is perhaps most stark in the Bay Area, a slew of local politicians took center stage.
“Count me in on the conversation,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said from her dining room. “I am [with] YIMBYs for Kamala Harris, and I love the fact that we’re finally having a national conversation about housing.
“You can still protect neighborhood character and build new housing,” she added. “San Francisco is not a museum.”
In a two-minute speech, Breed talked about her upbringing in public housing and railed against local policies she said have made housing too expensive and difficult to build. She hailed a new senior housing project in the Mission that was able to break ground within a year of garnering city approvals as evidence that deregulation, championed by the likes of state Sen. Scott Wiener, can work. “Imagine if we took this to the national level,” she pitched.
Wiener, for his part, was more sentimental in his remarks, opting to reminisce about the days he spent working alongside Harris when they were climbing the ranks of San Francisco politics nearly two decades ago. “It’s amazing [Harris] is now finally talking about building homes and not letting bad regulation get in the way,” he said.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta also jumped into the fray, reminding the audience that he has Harris’ “old job.”
“I don’t take this issue lightly,” Bonta said. “California has the highest rate of homelessness, and those who are even considering buying a home are priced out. It’s unacceptable.”
Bonta added that his administration is focused on “housing justice,” which means enforcing state-mandated quotas on new housing production while protecting residents. He said it’s important for the White House to do the same.
Domalewski said that to keep momentum going, YIMBY supporters plan to develop a set of policy guidelines to pass to the Harris team. Priorities that have emerged so far include updating federal rules to make it easier to finance new housing, providing incentives to local governments to pursue YIMBY policies, and updating codes in the Department of Housing and Urban Development to encourage construction.
Celebrity media types rounded out Wednesday’s event. Ramit Sethi, author of the 2009 bestseller “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” and host of the 2023 Netflix series “How to Get Rich,” pledged to match $10,000 in donations.
“Housing costs should only take less than 28% of your income, but we all know that number is impossible today,” Sethi said. “And it’s not because of avocado toast. It’s because wealthy homeowners have rigged the government to restrict what can be built.”
Throughout the evening, a person in a bumblebee costume made appearances as the “NimBEE” to antagonize the audience. At one point, the character held an “EEGLAYSIUS SUCKS” sign and flipped off the camera.
Journalist and housing wonk Matthew Yglesias took the trolling in stride. “I remember when [the YIMBY] movement was just two guys in a bar,” he said. “I never thought we’d see this.
“The other side opposes any effort to weaken single-family zoning,” he added. “What are Republicans good for if they can’t even get behind deregulation?”