WMFHA Staff Join Congressman Derek Kilmer for a YIMBY Act Roundtable

WMFHA Director of Government Affairs, Ryan Makinster, was asked to speak at the Yes In My Backyard or YIMBY Act Roundtable held on October 25 at Tacoma Community College. The Roundtable was an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss housing affordability and supply issues as well as solutions designed to address the crisis, including the YIMBY Act.

Introduced in May 2021, the YIMBY Act would require CDBG recipients to adopt (or demonstrate credible plans to adopt) specific land use policies that encourage more housing production and diverse land uses geared toward new development.

Highlights of the bill include:

• Expanding zones where developers have presumptive right to build multifamily units
• Allowing up to fourplexes in single-family residential zones
• Allowing manufactured homes in single-family zones
• Allowing multifamily residential developments in commercial zones

The bill, a priority for the National Apartment Association and supported by WMFHA, passed the U.S. House earlier this year and its supporters hope to pass it either outright or through another legislative vehicle during the lame duck session currently underway in Washington DC. Previously co-sponsored by Lt. Governor Denny Heck as H.R. 4351 when he was in Congress, the bill is now championed by Washington state U.S. Representative Derek Kilmer.

The event was hosted by the Tacoma Housing Authority, a CDBG recipient and supporter of the Yes in My Backyard Act.