And it locks lower-income people of color out of the opportunities for upward social mobility - from well-funded schools to cleaner air - that are found in wealthier neighborhoods. Today, neighborhoods that are exclusively zoned for single-family homes still reinforce racial and socioeconomic segregation, the Urban Institute found, as they tend to be occupied by whiter and wealthier people than denser, multifamily housing. Single-family zoning became entrenched in the US in the mid-20th century as white localities used zoning laws to box out manufacturing areas and prevent Black families from moving into their neighborhoods. Today, nearly 75% of residentially-zoned land in the US is restricted to single-family housing - detached homes designed for one family. Some areas are zoned for commercial buildings or skyscrapers, others for apartment buildings or agricultural use. One of the main targets for reform was zoning laws - local regulations that determine what kind of buildings can go where. So Trauss began advocating for more housing at local planning meetings and helped start the YIMBY movement. "There were a lot of people who all agreed with each other, but everybody thought they were the only one," she said. Trauss was a high-school math teacher in San Francisco when she began noticing that a lot of people she knew had started to come around to the idea that "housing is good." In the early 2010s, the San Francisco Bay Area faced a rapidly worsening housing-affordability crisis sparked in part by the tech boom, and local NIMBYs were stymieing much-needed construction. And while California still has some of the highest home prices in the nation, it was a fight against single-family zoning there that gave birth to the modern YIMBY movement. Perhaps the biggest of them all is single-family zoning. Restrictive building codes, local opposition, and many other stumbling blocks can downsize or outright prevent new housing. The crux of the YIMBY plan is to build more housing by reducing the number of choke points in the development process. "I feel like they have shot all of their loads." If you build it … "We're at the other team's touchdown line," Trauss said. Sonja Trauss, the executive director of the group YIMBY Law, said the movement has a lot left to accomplish and the anti-building NIMBYs still have a lot of political power, but the future appears brighter than ever. If the movement continues to attract followers and win over local, state, and federal leaders, it could make American cities and suburbs more affordable and diverse. Conservatives and libertarians see it as a way to get rid of government regulation and empower property owners. The idea also has appeal across the political spectrum: Progressives support housing abundance as a way to boost affordability. Homelessness is on the rise and a growing share of Americans are rent-burdened or can't afford to buy a home. Two-thirds of Americans say it's hard to find an affordable home where they live. YIMBYism has gained traction as the affordability crisis has gotten worse. From coast to coast, cities and states are defying the dominant "Not In My Backyard," or NIMBY, ideas that have for decades dominated most housing discussions. YIMBYism isn't a new idea, but over the past couple of years it has started to notch small but crucial victories that appear to signal that the movement is becoming more broadly accepted. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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