Why Don't You Volunteer Your Own House?

Profiting off of my hate mail. A NIMBYTale

Welcome back to NIMBYTales, a semi-regular segment highlighting some of the best anti-housing hate mail I’ve received.

I’ve been writing too many serious, controversial housing posts recently. Today, let us revel in the shamelessness of those who fight new homes in wealthy neighborhoods.¹

This week’s hate mail comes from my early days as a housing advocate, when I was a new volunteer organizing in my hometown of Lafayette, California (median home value $2 million). For context, the group I helped co-found is called Inclusive Lafayette, a name emphasizing the relationship between housing policy and racial equity, which was in vogue in liberal areas at the time. Ah the sweet, innocent days of 2020.

Way back then, Inclusive Lafayette advocated for the city to allow 3-4 story apartment buildings in select areas throughout our community, not just the small downtown in which the city has historically concentrated all multi-family homes. One commenter had this to say in response to our advocacy:

To Whom It May Concern:

Why don't you volunteer your own house or your parents' house to be upzoned and build your 5-story apartment building on their lot, and make it all "affordable" before you go around trying to bully the rest of the homeowners in Lafayette to forfeit their properties that they actually have worked hard for to have a nice single family home? Why don't you start paying our property taxes and everything else that we pay for to live in a single family neighborhood, that was planned and built to accommodate single family homes? Why don't you disclose the source of your funding from developers, which would mean that you have a conflict of interest when it comes to housing?

And finally, if you don't like Lafayette the way it is, even though you were fortunate enough to benefit from its good schools and the rest that goes along with its character, then why don't YOU leave this town, instead of trying to bully others because you want them to build in somebody else's backyard, not your own! And why don't you face up to the fact that the entire system, the entire rhetoric behind all of this is FALSE - YOU HAVE NO PROOF, NO EVIDENCE, NO NOTHING that shows that there is affordable housing being built that actually benefits people who need affordable housing.

I am tired of your false narrative, and your divisive and vitriolic attacks on the people of Lafayette who do the living and working and paying taxes and supporting the community, who want Lafayette to be Lafayette! B.S.!! There is no call for your propaganda, and no reason for it either, other than to stir up and make people upset! You don't tell the truth to those people who you have "included" in your group, and you sure as hell don't tell the truth to anyone else! So, unless you want to start being honest and productive, please take your false narrative and false claims, and just stop.

And BY THE WAY, WHY isn't SINGLE FAMILY HOME OWNERSHIP a choice in your dictatorial view? 70% of America gets to live the American dream - but you don't want that in Lafayette? PLEASE, you and all the other "YIMBY" people that are just like Trump followers - just follow what you say, never question, while he bullies his way along; please EXPLAIN how that is working??? ANYWHERE in the state of California? While people are being displaced; and then not able to afford the neighborhood that they lived in; while businesses are being displaced and not able to come back. How is all this great legislation and great rhetoric working? The ANSWER IS: IT IS NOT; and if you can name ONE CITY where it actually IS working, PLEASE, let's hear about it??

STOP acting like you speak for anyone except yourself - and make sure that the council understands that you have a conflict of interests, since you are funded by developers.

Thank you.

[Redacted]

For the record, the person who wrote this email to me inherited the home in which they live.

I strongly agree with the emailer that unaffordability and displacement are huge issues, which is why I support allowing more housing in more places so more people can stay in them. I love Lafayette, which I why I want to create opportunities for more people to live there and contribute to it.

I also fully support anyone who chooses to live in a single-family home. In a free world, people would have a lot more choice about how much housing they build on land they own in existing urban areas, including just one home or no housing at all. I’m less supportive of “Not In YOUR BackYard” anti-housing advocates who want to prevent everyone around them from choosing to live in any other type of home.

Lastly, I repeatedly asked Lafayette’s city council to zone for more housing on my parent’s property in town. Sadly, the council declined. Just one of many reasons I remain passionate about volunteering in my hometown.

The beautiful image I received by asking Gemini to “Make an image of a well-dressed man placing a single-family home into a piggy bank labeled “Inclusive Lafayette” while a tear rolls down his eye. In the background, have a group of younger people cheering while they hold up an apartment building to replace his home. Thank you AI overlords for your bounty!

Have a good NIMBYTale from Nextdoor or elsewhere? Drop it in the comments for everyone to enjoy or DM me if you want it highlighted in a future newsletter. If I feature a post you share with me, I’m happy to anonymize you or your hater(s) and to promote any of your own work.

1. (Don’t worry, I’m saving up more seriousness and controversy for my next post.)