Thread by @mtnbvan

Subscribers: Urban Forum - YIMBY movement pushes a hardline pro-development approach to housing - Trauss instructed the mostly millennial audience to... fight for more supply. theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/va… v.@globeandmail #vanre #AHV #Yimbys #vanpoli 1/

"Trauss – who is funded by private interests, including tech..companies and property developers...lives in San Francisco...she attended a Vancouver city council hearing the day before her talk, to support 21 luxury rental townhouse units...in Shaughnessy." #4575Granville 2/

"“You have a job now,” she instructed her audience, urging them to get organized and get out and support the Shaughnessy proposal...We all need to make sure we get involved in the decision-making process – because otherwise we are not going to get the outcomes that we need." 3/

"She was in Vancouver to spread the gospel of build, build and build more, and she is unapologetic about the industry backing that she receives. In fact, she maintains that developers should be giving her more funding"4/

"Trauss wants to rally her troops outside of the Bay Area because the development of a broad network is necessary for political influence, she says, in order to achieve their goal for greater density in cities and the affordable rents they believe will follow" 5/

"San Francisco non-profit YAH! Bay Area (Yes to Affordable Hsg), Erin Reeves, has criticized the movement for encouraging the hyper-#commodification of housing, which has caused displacement of people in low-income neighbourhoods..people shouldn’t underestimate the movement" 6/

"The [Yimby] movement takes a hardline approach, bereft of nuance, particularly on topics around protecting existing communities. Although [Trauss] favours housing subsidies, she says she would support luxury developments in poor and middle-class neighbourhoods." 7/

"Trauss got a favourable mention for her activism by condo marketer Bob Rennie, as part of his Urban Development Institute speech in 2016. “Ms. Trauss,” Mr. Rennie said, “supports all of it so long as it’s built tall and built soon.”/ FIN

"Trauss says the city should embrace its condo-producing “industry.” - “[Vancouver] has the potential of having all these condos and they are basically vacation rentals. There are a lot of towns that are vacation towns...but you don’t have to educate their kids. "

"In exchange, she says it’s right that the government collect higher property taxes from the wealthy vacationers. An antidote to speculation, she says, is more supply."

"Josh Gordon, assistant professor at {SFU]’s School of Public Policy, disagrees that supply has played a major factor in the affordability crisis...the greatest disconnect between home prices & incomes are also areas with the highest rates of non-resident ownership."

"After years of failing to address the situation with effective government policy, the region has found itself with a serious affordability crisis. “The YIMBY trick is to pretend that the market will produce abundance in the face of strong demand,” Prof. Gordon says."

"The only time that might happen, and it will be temporary, is during the after effects of a housing bubble. Otherwise, the market will never produce abundance. If prices start to fall significantly, the development industry throttles back production..."

"..So the idea of producing abundance to create affordability and to reduce speculation...is just a ruse to justify the production of more & more housing. That’s why YIMBYs like Trauss are usually backed by developers...ideology is developer ideology wrapped in sheep’s clothing”

Reeves: "“Right now we are in a battle zone of understanding, a narrative battle. The way we operate right now, seeing housing as a commodity, is not working for people.”