California YIMBY

WHO WE ARE

California YIMBY’s mission is to make California an affordable place to live, work, and raise a family. Right now, millions of Californians live in crowded and substandard housing, with high rent burdens, exposure to health risks, and multi-hour commutes. As a result, many Californians are leaving the state, and fewer would-be Californians are immigrating. For many companies, the astronomical cost of housing is driving them to hire talent in other states. We need to reverse this trend, and we can. 

California’s housing shortage—and the affordability, environmental, equity, and health crises it has caused—is the result of decades of deliberate policies to limit the supply of housing. Building affordable, dense housing is currently illegal in the majority of urban California, but it doesn’t have to be. If we change our housing and land use laws, we could build millions of new homes in existing urban areas without displacing incumbent communities. 

The goal of California YIMBY’s $3.5M yearly effort is to build a movement and pass legislation to end the housing shortage. Founded in 2017, California YIMBY has helped pass eight pro-housing bills which will enable at least 1.5 million more homes to be built in California. We’ve built a membership of over 80,000 Californians, 20 local YIMBY Teams, 3 pro-housing coalitions, and we’re just getting started. 

OUR VALUES

Our vision is of a California where neighbors welcome new neighbors of all backgrounds, and current residents are not displaced from their communities.

• We believe in neighborliness, and that communities are enriched and strengthened by openness and diversity. We believe that California holds the promise of opportunity for all: the chance to start a new life, the freedom to be our authentic selves, the promise of prosperity, the lure of our natural wonders.
• We believe in empowerment, and support those who want to accommodate new neighbors while ensuring that new developments take place without displacement. We believe that existing residents have a right to remain in their neighborhoods. We make an effort to seek out and include people with varied backgrounds, experiences and identities to inform our agenda and priorities. We do not tolerate intolerance.
• We pursue excellence in every aspect of our work — from the policies we design and support, to the way we interact with our colleagues, allies, partners, and elected officials. We believe trustworthiness is a pillar of human progress. We are passionate advocates for more housing, and insist on holding ourselves to account. We believe in evidence-based decision making. When we learn something new, we change our views to accommodate our learnings.