Episode Details

It’s no secret that access to affordable housing in America is increasingly out of reach. Activists in the growing YIMBY (“Yes In My Back Yard”) movement believe they have a solution: build more of everything. 

On this episode, associate editor Griffin Oleynick speaks with Max Holleran, a sociologist at the University of Melbourne in Australia and author of Yes to the City: Millennials and the Fight for Affordable Housing, a detailed study of the YIMBYs. 

The YIMBYs’ push for new construction, Holleran argues, won’t entirely solve the problem of housing affordability. To do that, we must not only re-invest in alternatives like community land trusts, but also continue fighting for higher wages and greater income equality.

For further reading: 

• “Making the Rent,” The Editors
• “The Bay Area’s Infinite Loop,” Kaya Oakes
• “Poverty and Profit in the American City,” Frank Pasquale