About California YIMBY
Let’s make California for everyone
Our History
Since our founding, California YIMBY has been at the forefront of major legislative victories that will help end the housing shortage and make California a more equitable, affordable, and livable state.
A Fast-Growing Movement
We’ve built a fast-growing, statewide movement for housing reform, with over 80,000 members and 20 local teams comprised of volunteers dedicated to ensuring all Californians and future Californians have a home. From Humboldt to San Diego, California YIMBY organizers are engaging voters, homeowners, renters, businesses, civic leaders, faith communities, affordable housers, and changing the conversation about housing. We connect our volunteers and members directly with the local and state leaders who write and pass policy.
Popular Solutions for the Housing and Climate Crises
Our solutions are wildly popular with California voters. Across the political, economic, and demographic spectrum, Californians understand that the housing crisis is the result of a shortage of homes — and that allowing more homes to be built is the solution. Fully 66% of Californians support making it legal for more homes to be built near transit and jobs while protecting tenants. That includes “Yes In My Back Yard” voters who would welcome new homes in their neighborhoods — and on their blocks.
Grounded in Research
Our legislative and policy agenda is guided by empirical research into the causes of the housing shortage and housing cost burdens, and the measures needed to overcome them. We work closely with top housing researchers and academics from across the US, including California’s extensive network of experts on land use, urban planning, housing affordability, transportation systems, low-income housing, and related finance and tax policies.
Changing the National Debate
As the largest YIMBY organization in the largest state in the US, California YIMBY has played an outsized role in advancing the cause of affordable housing and urban land use reform across the country. As our policy priorities advance in the Golden State, other states are taking notice — and taking action: Zoning and land use reform is moving forward in states across the country, taking lessons learned and concepts from our efforts in Sacramento and bringing them to state houses far and wide.
Our pro-housing agenda is also supported by scores of advocacy organizations, with policy partners like AARP, the League of Women Voters, NRDC, the California Labor Federation, the California Chamber of Commerce, the Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and the California Association of Realtors.
A Record of Legislative Impact
SB 9 – California Housing Opportunity & More Efficiency (HOME) Act
SB 9 would allow two homes on every property zoned for single-family homes in California. By streamlining the process to split a lot or create a duplex bill could lead to a substantial increase in the amount of housing available in neighborhoods throughout the state. When paired with recent ADU legislation, homeowners would be able to build up to 3 new homes on their lot.
SB 10 – Missing Middle Housing Near Jobs and Transit
SB 10 would allow cities to streamline the upzoning of lots near jobs and transit. By enabling cities to increase the density of these lots up to 10 units without triggering an environmental review, this bill would make it easier to build housing for young people and working families.
SB 477 – The Housing Data Act
SB 477 will create a systemic, statewide approach to gathering and analyzing data about the impact of state housing law. The Housing Data Act will require local governments to track and report when they approve a home as a result of state law, ensuring that these laws are having the intended impact.
SB 478 – The Housing Opportunity Act
SB 478 removes artificial barriers cities establish that have the effect of reducing the number of homes that can be legally built on a property. By establishing minimum standards for technical issues such as floor area ratios and minimum lot sizes, the Housing Opportunity Act will ensure that more homes are built on properties where multi-family homes are already legal.
SCA 2 – Article 34 Repeal
This bill places a measure on the California state ballot to repeal Article 34, a 1950 amendment to the state Constitution that had the effect of banning public and low-income housing in most California cities. Article 34 worsens racial and economic segregation by limiting the supply of low-income housing across the state.
AB 946 – End Tax Deductions for Vacation Homes
AB 946 eliminates the state Mortgage Interest Deduction for vacation homes and directs the state to use the $230M in savings to help create ownership opportunities for up to 23,000 low-income Californians.
AB 1401 – End Parking Mandates
AB 1401 ends costly parking mandates that can add as much as $80,000 per home to the cost of new housing. These mandates also exacerbate air and climate pollution by creating incentives for more driving and car use. AB 1401 makes it possible for home builders in areas near transit, or in areas with low existing rates of car usage, to build housing for people who don’t drive, or who can’t afford a car, without requiring the high cost of mandatory parking.
AB 1075 – Missing Middle Zoning Reform
AB 1075 would make it legal for cities to allow up to 10 homes on lots that currently ban multi-family housing. Multi-family homes are currently banned on over 70 percent of the urban land in California; these bans are the single largest barrier to housing affordability in the state.
AB 602 – Development Fee Reform
AB 602 would increase impact fee transparency and require impact fees to be proportional to the size of a new home so that smaller individual homes pay smaller fees.
AB 889 – Property Owner Transparency
AB 889 seeks to increase transparency in housing by requiring corporate and institutional landlords to report the owners of the corporation or limited liability company that rents out a property.
ACA 7 – OPPOSE
If passed by the legislature and approved by voters, ACA 7 would give cities the power to continue policies that fail our state’s most vulnerable populations. This constitutional amendment would let California cities ignore the state’s affordable housing laws, effectively rendering ADU, housing element, and fair housing laws unenforceable.
Our Mission
We believe that everyone should be able to benefit from California’s boundless opportunity to achieve their full potential. California YIMBY’s mission is to make California an affordable place to live, work, and raise a family. Achieving our mission will put California on a path of broad-based economic prosperity, creating vibrant, livable, and inclusive communities for everyone. We advance our mission by:
addressing and correcting systemic inequities in California housing laws, and in related laws and regulations;
empowering Californians across the state to engage their elected representatives at the state and local levels on housing and related policies;
ensuring that California housing laws and local regulations are evidence-based, equitable and inclusive; and
drafting and advocating for proven legislative solutions that accelerate the pace of home building.
An equitable California begins with abundant, secure, affordable housing. We focus on housing and land use policy at the state level to ensure grassroots organizers and city leaders have the tools they need to accelerate home building at the local level.
Our Vision & 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.