Politico - Scoop: The YIMBYs are coming — to Congress

House members aligned with the YIMBY — or Yes in My Backyard — movement are launching a first-of-its-kind, bipartisan caucus to help advance their case that America’s housing shortage is largely due to local regulations that make it too difficult to build new homes. 

Led by California Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, the YIMBY Caucus is set to launch today with 25 members who agree on one key concept: that the solution to America’s affordable housing problem is to accelerate production. 

It’s another sign of how the California-born movement, which was started a decade ago by San Francisco activists angry over the city’s astronomical cost of rent, has gained national attention and spread to other states with major housing shortages of their own, including Colorado, North Carolina, Arizona, New York and Hawaii. 

The new caucus will also be co-chaired by Reps. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Oregon), Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.), Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) and Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.). 

Garcia, the former mayor of Long Beach, chatted with Playbook about his vision for the new caucus, and how he hopes it can make progress given President-elect Donald Trump attacked YIMBY policies on the campaign trail. Highlights from the interview: 

Playbook: Why launch the caucus now, why is this the right moment? 

Garcia: Well, the single biggest challenge we face in California and in the country is housing. There’s no bigger issue for us back home and we are in a housing crisis. We’ve got to build 3-4 million minimum additional homes across the country to meet our needs.

Playbook: There are a number of Republicans among the founding members of the caucus. Where do you think Democrats and Republicans can find common ground on housing from an ideological standpoint?

Garcia: Obviously, we have different ideas about policy and some bigger debates. But, in this caucus, we all agree that there is a housing crisis. We also agree that, oftentimes, housing policy is overregulated. And I think both sides understand that. For us, as Democrats or progressives, we understand that being a YIMBY is about jobs, growth. It’s also about deregulation. A lot of Republicans would say the same thing.

Playbook: Many of these land-use decisions have traditionally been left to local governments. What is the role for Congress, and what can Washington do to get more cities moving on housing construction?

Garcia: Congress has a role when, especially when states are failing to actually build environments where housing can get developed. There’s a lot of things: One, there’s zoning and regulation that we’ve got to engage in. Two, it’s tax incentives. There’s a lot of conversation, about tax incentives for developers and for homebuilders, around commercial development. The caucus can also be used to really push cities and states to adopt more pro-housing policies.

Playbook: Kamala Harris ran with ideas from the pro-housing movement as part of her platform. Donald Trump was on the other side of that, calling some of the YIMBY policies a “war on America’s suburbs.” How could YIMBYs deal with a president who apparently isn’t very friendly to their ideas?

Garcia: We shouldn’t forget Donald Trump was a developer. There’s few people that disagree with Trump more on his proposals than me. But, at the end of the day, we need more homes. A lot of Republicans are pro-housing. We need to build housing in this country, and that doesn’t matter who the president is. This is a moral imperative. It’s impacting our homelessness crisis in the state. People’s rents are way too high.

Playbook: It sounds like part of what you’re saying is that, in practice, you don’t think Trump is going to stand by that “war on the suburbs” rhetoric, that he might be more pro-development in practice. Is that fair?

Garcia: I would hope so. At the end of the day, everyone in the caucus isn’t going to agree on everything. But there are some shared principles here. We do believe that house construction development is overregulated. We do believe in [being] pro-growth on housing, all types of housing. There’s some shared bipartisan agreement, and now is the moment to capitalize on that.