How long can citizen-power stall a housing crisis? Nimbyites1 have been pushing the envelope for decades. They have been both fervent and hugely obstructionist in their defence of a supposedly human right — not only to own a single family home, BUT to do so in a neighbourhood restricted to single family homes.
In housing proposal impact hearings everywhere, NIMBYites have wrapped themselves in an armour of good taste selfishness, clinging limpet-like to existing exclusionary by-laws, hell-bent on associating housing as inoffensive as a two story duplex with drugs, crime, homelessness, as well as badass ugliness2.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, achieved momentary fame as a first, albeit smallish, government to storm the neighbourhood battlements which are so ably and endlessly defended by cries of NIMBY. To help the city address its housing crisis by increasing housing density, Minneapolis simply abolished single family residence zoning and allowed modestly sized -plexes3.
Now thunder echoes from the far side of a Minneapolis-centred globe, where the New Zealand legislature is considering a similar, but nation-wide, attack on the single family by-law battlements from which Nimbyites so fiercely defend the status quo. The fact that there is national leadership on this issue is truly impressive. Worldwide we’ve been treated to a view of most (though not all) national governments pushing innovative housing leadership down to the municipal level, where often there is no financial ability to exploit new ways of thinking about neighbourhoods.
What has this got to do with truly affordable housing, for those with low or no incomes? Such a sweeping legislative change opens a door to different approaches for building such housing. At the moment, that’s all.
Needless to say it does nothing to support plans to build high rise social housing projects. But scattering truly affordable triplex units throughout formerly single family-zoned neighbourhoods would become a viable possibility — a low impact social housing program for any New Zealand community.
Anybody interested beyond New Zealand? You bet! If journal publication is even the faintest indicator of societal interest at some level, a google search will confirm worldwide attention being given to the New Zealand proposal.
Read more in The Guardian4: Sweeping housing legislation could reshape New Zealand cities for decades to come
Footnotes
- From the acronym NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard).
- affordablehousingaction.org operates from a older Toronto neighbourhood allowing -plexes of all shapes and sizes, barring only high rises. We can, on any leafy neighbourhood stroll, firmly assert that badass ugliness is a virtually exclusive infection of modern single family dwellings, not modest duplexes or even six-plexus — or eight-plexes with basement apartments.
- Try: Minneapolis Drives A Stake Into The Heart Of The American Dreamscape
- The Guardian provides a number of free reads. If you’ve reached that limit, you will need provide an email address to continue reading for free.
