NOT IN MY BACKYARD!

Yes, NIMBYism is real, and is one of the largest roadblocks to building quality housing.

But the fears of multifamily development often do not match the outcome.

Love this from Patricia:

“We often talk about economic development as if jobs and housing are separate conversations, but how could they be? Every new employer brings employees. Every new restaurant needs staff. Every new retailer needs workers. If a community wants growth, it also needs housing for the people who make that growth possible.”

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By Patricia Watts ( Source ):

After developing more than 4,500 workforce housing units across Arizona, we have heard plenty of concerns about what new apartments might mean for a neighborhood: more traffic, more crime, lower property values and changes to the surrounding community.

What is more interesting is what happens after the apartments are actually built.

In our experience, the reality has looked very different from the fears raised before construction. That is why I think we need to have a different conversation about the role new housing can play in growing communities.

 

Housing is treated as a lagging indicator when it's actually the input. Towns chase the tax base and commercial growth that come with expansion, then block the multifamily supply that workforce needs to show up for it.
Treat housing as a nuisance instead of infrastructure and the businesses you courted inherit the staffing gap, along with the service and cost fallout that comes with it.
Which one usually loses in these zoning fights, the revenue math or the staffing math nobody in the room is running?