Vice President Kamala Harris has made housing production a key talking point in her campaign for president, bringing to the national stage a debate that has been dominating San Diego and California politics for years.
"We will end America’s housing shortage," Harris declared in her Aug. 22 speech to the Democratic National Convention. Her housing plan includes a goal of building 3 million new homes over the next four years, in part by incentivizing cities and states to update zoning laws and speed up permitting timelines.
Jordan Latchford, president of the YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County, said she was thrilled to hear a presidential candidate speak about high housing costs as the result of a housing shortage. YIMBY stands for Yes In My Backyard, a slogan embraced by activists fighting to build a lot more housing, especially in high-demand cities.
"At the federal level, for them to admit that we do have a housing shortage and that we need to be building more housing and increasing our housing supply was really validating," Latchford said.
More than 30,000 Harris supporters joined a "YIMBYs for Harris" Zoom call on Wednesday that featured several San Diego elected officials including Rep. Scott Peters, La Mesa City Councilmember Colin Parent and Assemblymember Chris Ward. As of Friday afternoon, the group had raised more than $133,000 for the Harris campaign.
Peters said the Biden-Harris administration is already making moves on housing, highlighting a Department of Housing and Urban Development program that gives grants to state and local governments to remove regulatory barriers to homebuilding.
"It's great to have that support from the federal government for the work we do on the ground as YIMBYs at the state, and especially at the local level," Peters said. "I'm excited to work with the Harris-Walz administration to make this vision a reality (and) pass policies like my Building More Housing Near Transit Act, which would increase supply in transit-oriented neighborhoods, boost public transit ridership and get cars off the road."
The push to build more housing has not been embraced by Donald Trump, who has boasted of his efforts to block affordable housing in suburban communities in order to "keep criminals out of your neighborhood." Those remarks, which perpetuated the myth that affordable housing attracts crime, appeared to refer to his administration’s move in 2020 to repeal Obama-era fair housing rules.
Those rules, which direct cities to proactively undo the legacy of past racist housing policies, are already codified into California law. President Joe Biden has proposed a new version of the regulations, but it has not yet been finalized.
In California, some of the most vocal opponents of efforts to increase homebuilding are Democrats. Latchford said Harris' embrace of YIMBY ideas will signal to those Democrats that they're out of step with the national Democratic Party, and that pro-housing policies can help drive enthusiasm and win votes.
"In San Diego, at the state level, federal level, those that are pushing pro-housing policies have been successful," Latchford said. "I think it really demonstrates that the more someone is supportive of housing in their communities and their neighborhoods, the more likely they are to do well."
