[For those new to the housing policy world please read the definition of NIMBY, YIMBY, and PHIMBY in the post below]
If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then NIMBY, YIMBY, and PHIMBY relationships can behave kind of like strange roommates where three is a crowd. They aren’t really friends, but they can get big advantages especially when the fight over dirty dishes or drinking the last of the milk is two against one.
Here are the dynamics that are important to know, especially when you are considering the positions of politicians.
YIMBY and PHIMBY hate NIMBY for obvious reasons. NIMBY is the long term renter subletting the other two rooms. She has the biggest and best room and pays the least in rent. Every time YIMBY and PHIMBY ask for something from the landlord, the landlord looks to her and she shuts it down. In the housing world, this looks like NIMBY saying “no” to all development and city councils listening. After all, the local politicians think, “Homeowners got me elected and homeowners are NIMBY.” Yet, YIMBY and PHIMBY have not yet gotten together to override her. Why?
PHIMBY distrusts YIMBY. YIMBY and PHIMBY want to fix up the kitchen but PHIMBY is afraid YIMBY will want to install an industrial grade espresso machine and knock out the corner cupboard where she stores her tea and it doesn’t mold. How does this play out in the housing policy space? PHIMBY does not agree with YIMBY about whether increasing housing supply will lower prices. For profit development, they argue, will ALWAYS develop at the highest price point especially in a housing crunch. These developments aren’t affordable to those of us who are working class and poor neighbors. It is hard to foresee a time when demand will decrease so much that development will be affordable to the nursing assistants, gardeners, and restaurant workers in our community. Furthermore, development often buys land in lower income areas (because it is cheaper) and destroys what affordable housing stock is left. Thus, in a sick and twisted turn of events PHIMBY can sometimes align with NIMBY to oppose development that would cause gentrification and displacement. This alignment is not friendship, far from it, but politically advantageous at times.
NIMBY uses PHIMBY. To continue our roommate metaphor – NIMBY now says, “I’m with PHIMBY, we need to preserve that tea cupboard.” She doesn’t want a kitchen remodel. She claimed all the best cupboards a long time ago. Thus, it is in her interest to stoke the distrust between PHIMBY and YIMBY by pretending to care about PHIMBY. In the housing space, when PHIMBY and NIMBY align against YIMBY, NIMBY sure does start looking good. Remember, the NIMBY thought process is, “Don’t build anything, ever,” but in this circumstance NIMBY can say, “Watch out for these YIMBY new comers, they don’t care about low income people. I do. I think we should worry about developing low-income housing, that’s more urgent, and stop promoting broader market rate development.”
Coming from NIMBY, this argument is infuriating. First, NIMBY has done almost nothing for PHIMBY. In fact, by restricting supply so much and for so long, NIMBY is a major cause of exorbitant prices in the first place. Second, if NIMBY knows anything about housing, they know this statement is a bluff. The chances of building any significant amount of public housing in this environment are so incredibly low that you can say you are for it and still achieve all your NIMBY dreams. Lydia Kou @lydia_kou, a Palo Alto California city council person and notorious NIMBY blew up Twitter a while back with just this sort of position. She was voted on to council by a wave of NIMBYism – in the wake of Palo Altans turning down BOTH for profit and nonprofit low-income housing. Where was she when Palo Alto closed the community center to homeless people who just wanted to use PUBLIC showers before they went to work? I can’t be sure her new found PHIMBYism is real or fake, but we should be wary. PLEASE, if you vote, if you care about housing, call this bluff, EVERYTIME.
So the question remains – how do YIMBY and PHIMBY get together, come to some kind of agreement and build power to win?