In November 2019, we hosted 120 or so key stakeholders in the housing industry for a deep dive event focused on driving attainability for middle income households – those who make roughly $50K-$125K per year.
In table-based think tanks of six to eight people, we addressed 15 questions related to PLACE, PRODUCT and PRODUCTION (or process) – the three big buckets that need to be tackled to make homes more attainable without sacrificing the quality of our homes and our lives.
Here’s a question from the PLACE segment of our agenda.
How can we best engage communities to go from NIMBY to YIMBY and accelerate acceptance of new housing models?
We asked 21 thought leaders, including regional and national builders; technology providers; experts in innovation, risk management, off-site construction, and media; manufacturers; academics; a market analyst and a representative of the federal government.
Here’s what they had to say about battling community inertia.
Focus on community improvement. Send a clear message to the community that we’re here to improve the community, not to necessarily flip things upside down and change things from how they’ve been.
Be flexible. Listen to what the community wants. If the community is concerned about more parking spaces, consider that seriously.
Invest time in the stakeholders. Engage them and the community, hire a facilitator, get everybody around the same table talking. Bring the list of things they don’t want and don’t like and go through that and come up with a list of things we do like and get everybody to buy in.
Sell the advantages. Sell the community on the advantages of the development and the new housing models. Often a small group of passionate, vocal and organized “No’s” have more influence than a large group of agreeable people.
What’s in it for me? Play on the education aspect of it. How can you provide that information to the residents themselves that this really is needed? Show good examples. What is it in their interest? What would the little more density do? Would it bring more friends and families in there? Could you as builder/developer give some incentives for friends and families to come?