Sympathy for NIMBYS? by Tom Durkin
The Union, 13 Mar 2025
Recently, I was trashed in a letter to the editor for trashing NIMBYS. That’s okay. I welcome the comments. We need this dialog.
NIMBYS (Not In My Back Yard) are people who do not want to share their neighborhoods with people of a lower socioeconomic status. Specifically, they don’t want people recovering from homelessness living near them, whether it be in a trailer or a group home.
The self-implication of the letter writer is that he is a NIMBY. Let’s call him LW. I’m not naming him because this is not personal. My intent is not to shame or embarrass anybody. My intent is, I hope, to change a few minds.
Like LW, I came up the hard way — abused childhood, worked since I was 12, struggled all my life with mental illness and physical disability. Somehow, I have forged a decent life for myself without making excuses for myself or putting other people down.
Unlike the letter writer, I do not claim to have “managed to make it with no help.” I had a lot of help. Some of us need more help than others.
Can anybody honestly say they did it all by themselves? Seriously?
UP AND DOWN
What characterizes NIMBYS is a failure to appreciate that we’re all in this together.
Nobody makes it on their own. It’s impossible. Humans can only survive through mutual reliance on each other. Otherwise, we’d still be living solitarily in the wild with only sticks and stones as tools.
There are plenty of people who came up from worse circumstances than LW and me. Yet, for some reason, they are willing to share their good fortune because they understand how freaking hard it is to overcome life’s obstacles. They understand not everyone is as capable and blessed as they have been.
They do not need to keep others down to feel good about themselves. What makes them feel good is helping others up.
JUSTICE FOR ALL
There is a philosophy originating in the Scandinavian countries based on the Danish word “Janteloven.” While translations vary, it roughly comes down to the belief that, “You are no better than me.”
You are no worse either. We are all equal
— at least, we are in the America I grew up in where we pledge allegiance to “liberty and justice for all.”
What I resent about NIMBYS is their unreasoned and uninformed prejudice against people they don’t know, people they call “the homeless.”
They are not “the” homeless. They are “our” homeless. NIMBYS must own the fact that they are partly responsible for the homeless/housing crisis.
BLAME GAME
“Some of us find it hard to understand those who didn’t find a way to keep a roof over their heads,” LW wrote.
He goes on: “How have so many made themselves unemployable? Didn’t finish school, police records, substance abuse?”
Please, try to understand a little harder, LW. According to the University of California, San Francisco, 63% of homeless people in California are unhoused because they could not find or afford housing.
It’s not their fault. It’s unkind and wrong to blame them for being homeless when there is no housing for them.
Moreover, many of them are employed fulltime. But their sweat just doesn’t seem to be worth enough — but we’d all be worse off without their essential labors.
Also, try to understand that you don’t see a lot of the homeless people because we don’t look or act “homeless.” When I was living in my car, only a precious few people — and a couple of peace officers who woke me up in the middle of the night — knew I was homeless.
Homeless people with unresolved mental health or substance abuse problems are a minority in the homeless population. Nevada County and the No Place to Go Project are not trying to place them in your neighborhood.
However, people receiving supportive services for mental illness and addiction recovery will never get better without a home.
Domestic violence victims, abused and runaway children, wildfire survivors, people coerced out of alternative housing by code enforcement, and folks who are sick, aged and/or disabled also need homes.
Yes, of course, there are lazy, criminal and disgusting homeless people, but there are also awful people who live in big, fine houses. They got there by, among other things, using exclusive zoning regulations and homeowner association covenants, conditions and restrictions that, literally, cause homelessness.
RIGHTS FOR ALL
Property rights end at your property line. You have the right to have a good home, but you do not have the right to deny anyone else a home.
To me, this is a civil rights issue. It’s illegal to discriminate against people for their race, for instance. It’s not illegal to discriminate against homeless people, but that doesn’t make it right.
How are people supposed to better themselves if NIMBYS actively work to keep them down?
I work with homeless people because I’ve been there. I have a gift, a passion — and a moral obligation — to speak for those defenseless folks who cannot speak for themselves.
Frankly, I know homeless people who are kinder, more generous and more self-sacrificing than the average NIMBY.
Of course, all this is just my opinion. I welcome a response from NIMBYS.
Columnist Tom Durkin is a freelance writer, editor and social justice advocate. He may be contacted at tjdurkin3@ gmail.com.