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welcomingneighbors.us
Welcoming Neighbors Network
@welcomingneighbors.us
5.4K followers 270 following 690 posts
A network of local organizations working to fix the US housing shortage. Our members win pro-housing policy change. We can help you do the same. welcomingneighbors.us.
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welcomingneighbors.us
Always a good day to be a welcoming neighbor networking in New Haven. They get it here.
A sign that says “No matter where you are from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor.”
September 15, 2025 at 4:12 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Best way to spend lunch: outside at WNN LGBTQ+ Affinity Group's Queer Homeroom! 🌈🏘️

If you're interested in joining the affinity group, shoot us a message. We'll get you connected.
a group of people sitting outside on a grass lawn
September 14, 2025 at 5:19 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Live from New Haven, it’s WWNNN! ⭐️
A group of housing advocates gathered in a large hall
September 13, 2025 at 10:28 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Your favorite housing advocate’s favorite housing advocates are all here, making sure our communities stay strong, abundant, and welcoming ✨🏘️🌳
A large group of people seated and listening to two speakers in a gothic dining hall at Yale Law School
September 13, 2025 at 3:52 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Add New Hampshire to the (increasingly long) list of states taking major action on housing this year! The governor just signed:
- Single-stair up to 4 stories
- Cap parking mandates @ 1/home
- ADU expansion
- Residential in commercial zones
- Legalizing roommates

www.603forward.org/press/housin...
Young Leaders Deliver Housing Wins, Advocates Call for Investments to Match CONCORD, NH – – 603 Forward and New Hampshire Youth Movement celebrate the signing of three major housing bills – HB 631, HB 577, and SB 284 – into law as a step toward easing the state’s worsening housing shortage. These new laws modernize local zoning policies by enabling more homes near jobs and transit, reforming outdated parking requirements, and expanding the ability to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs) across the state. These policy changes will help propel New Hampshire into the future and begin to address an issue affecting every single Granite Stater. While these changes lay important groundwork for long-term progress, both organizations emphasize that zoning reform alone won’t solve the crisis. Without real investment from the state, too many working families, young people, and seniors will continue to be priced out of their communities.
July 17, 2025 at 7:10 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Happy Independence Day! 🇺🇸
July 4, 2025 at 5:03 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Serious bone to pick here:

WelcomeFest is not an Abundance conference.

It's a centrist Democrat conference that had some centrist Dems at it who also like Abundance.

Abundance =/= Centrist.

It doesn't fit into a clean ideological box. Plz stop trying.
Screencap from Abundance Has a Theory of Power by Matt Bruenig "The Abundists have recruited a number of elected representatives to their cause, including 30 members of Congress who started the Abundance-themed Build America Caucus. They had a political conference called WelcomeFest, which combined the Abundance money with the Abundance electeds and the Abundance pundits."
June 13, 2025 at 11:42 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
As of today, 2025 has already been the most significant year of state pro-housing policy in modern history.

Look at all the pro-housing laws that have been adopted across the country already this year (with more to come)!

And this is just across WNN, so doesn't even count ADUs in Arkansas & Iowa.
Arizona HB 2928 - Legalizes 2-3 accessory dwelling units per lot in unincorporated areas of counties. SB1353 - Allows single-family home construction permits to be approved by designated third-parties professionals. SB1182 - Requires cities to allow construction during the early morning hours. HB 2110 - Significantly strengthens the state’s multifamily in commercial zones law. Connecticut HB 5002 - Housing omnibus Removes parking mandates for new housing (allows municipalities to require a parking study & apply mandates based on the results of the study for apartments >24 homes) Allows middle housing (up to 9 units) by right on all commercially zoned land Includes “Work Live Ride” language prioritizing state funds for municipalities that zone for middle housing and larger apartments by right near transit Includes “Fair Share” language prioritizing state funds for municipalities that create a “realistic opportunity” for developing the number of affordable housing units allocated to them Requires manufactured housing have parity with site-built housing in municipal zoning codes. Florida SB 1730 - Housing omnibus Caps requirements for non-residential spaced in mixed use at 10% Allows municipalities to approve YIGBY projects that don’t align with the comp plan (meaningfully helpful in FL) Expands territory where parking mandates must be reduced Eliminates “building moratorium” loophole some municipalities use to block by-right Live Local apartments Hawai’i HB1409 - Heavily incentivizes increases and standardization to Floor Area Ratios in areas designated as Transit-oriented Development (TOD) by the Hawai’i Interagency Council & prioritizes funding from the Rental Housing Revolving Fund to developments in the TOD area. SB38 - Prohibits county councils from imposing stricter conditions than the Hawai‘i Housing Finance and Development Corporation (HHFDC) on affordable housing developments. HB420 - Disincentivizes frivolous lawsuits against developers and contractors who are involved in the construction of housing. SB1002 - Requires State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) to contract out its review of proposed state projects and projects affecting historic properties to a third-party. HB 1406 - Establishes the Intergovernmental Task Force for Permit Simplification, bringing together various government entities to identify streamlining for the permitting process. HCR66 - Requests that the State Building Code Council adopt, amend, or update the State Building Code to allow for Single-Stair Construction for residential buildings up to six stories in the state. Maryland: HB 1466 - Legalizes accessory dwelling units statewide HB 489 - Created a single-stair apartment study Montana: SB243 - Legalizes apartments up to 60 ft tall in commercial zones HB492 - Major parking reform (caps at 1 space / home + 0 spaces for homes >1200 sf & deed-restricted affordable housing) SB213 - Legalizes single-stair apartments up to 6 stories SB 143 - Condo defect reform to enable / incentivize new condo construction SB 133 - Limits impact fees & caps fee increases New Hampshire: HB 631 - Legalizes multifamily housing in all commercial zones HB 577 - Allows detached & attached accessory dwelling units by-right statewide. Maryland: HB 1466 - Legalizes accessory dwelling units statewide HB 489 - Created a single-stair apartment study Montana: SB243 - Legalizes apartments up to 60 ft tall in commercial zones HB492 - Major parking reform (caps at 1 space / home + 0 spaces for homes >1200 sf & deed-restricted affordable housing) SB213 - Legalizes single-stair apartments up to 6 stories SB 143 - Condo defect reform to enable / incentivize new condo construction SB 133 - Limits impact fees & caps fee increases New Hampshire: HB 631 - Legalizes multifamily housing in all commercial zones HB 577 - Allows detached & attached accessory dwelling units by-right statewide.
June 2, 2025 at 9:07 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Texas just adopted its Starter Homes law SB 15, which caps minimum lot sizes at 3,000 square feet for new >5 acre subdivisions.

The first law of its kind in the country! Congrats @texansforhousing.bsky.social!
June 1, 2025 at 10:30 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Connecticut just adopted a MASSIVE pro-housing law that:
- Ends costly parking mandates (1st state east of the Rockies to do so)
- Incentives transit oriented development & fair share
- Allows middle housing in commercial zones
- Allows manufactured homes everywhere

Go @desegregatect.bsky.social!
May 31, 2025 at 6:30 AM
welcomingneighbors.us
Ethered.
New Yorker cartoon with exhibit in natural history museum: "Extinct species: Starter Home, circa 20th century" Parent says to child, "They say it disappeared around 1998."
May 20, 2025 at 1:38 AM
welcomingneighbors.us
Congrats to Florida on becoming the 3rd state to legalize Accessory Dwelling Units in 2025!

That's Florida, Maryland, and Arkansas so far this year, with major momentum toward passage in several others.

www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill...
May 1, 2025 at 12:36 AM
welcomingneighbors.us
1) This piece from @resnikoff.bsky.social is the absolute hottest fire.

2) Our message testing with @sightline.org showed that the balance of power between landlords & tenants / homesellers & homebuyers is the #1 best way to frame the stakes of housing abundance vs. scarcity for voters.
What is true for the labor market holds true in the housing market. Where housing is scarce and expensive, landlords, homeowner associations, and developer cartels hold the power, and tenants and homebuyers are cast into the role of supplicants, forced to accept subpar accommodations at whatever price and in whatever neighborhood is dictated to them. But where housing is plentiful, the roles are reversed: Landlords, sellers, and incumbent developers need to compete on both price and quality. Tenant harassment becomes exceptionally bad for business, because tenants have plenty of other housing options to choose from. Wealthy homeowners are no longer able to maintain economic moats around their communities and monopolize the benefits of homeownership. The dignity, freedom, and stability that come with housing security become accessible to everyone. This is the future that YIMBYs want.
April 28, 2025 at 7:21 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Has there every been a more 🔥 paragraph about zoning than this from @yappelbaum.bsky.social's Stuck? Holy guacamole.

(Everybody should read this book)
In World War 1, My great-grandfather won the Croix de Guerre driving ambulances in France. He commanded thirteen thousand troops in the next war, and Prince Umberto hung the Order of Italy around his neck. When his time in uniform was done, he retired to Connecticut on his colonel's pension, having survived the bullets, bombs, and shells with nary a scratch. It was zoning that killed him. One evening in the winter of 1961, he went before his town's Zoning Board of Appeals to secure permission to park a trailer on his property. I can't tell you exactly how the hearing proceeded, except that by the end of the night he was dead of a heart attack. A close encounter with land-use law can do that to you.
April 3, 2025 at 10:43 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Counter to what you might have heard from NIMBYs at public hearings, Austin’s HOME initiatives are not leading to large-scale neighborhood change.

Instead, they’re allowing incremental, contextual growth to meet local needs. This is the way. https://buff.ly/4h0X7u6
January 30, 2025 at 8:00 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
When landlords expect demand for rentals to rise without more rental options opening up at the same time, rents go up. Shocking! 😱 https://buff.ly/4awSfKE
January 29, 2025 at 4:00 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Lawmakers in Austin have a whole lot of options to choose from to combat the rising cost of housing this #txlege session — from YIGBY to lot sizes, ADUs to office conversions.

Texas could leave this session as the national leader on housing. 👀 https://buff.ly/40uFTOB
January 27, 2025 at 8:00 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
"You can change zoning today, and it doesn't have to cost the kind of price tags that we see for other proposals." https://buff.ly/40wI2JI
January 27, 2025 at 4:00 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Things we're leaving in 2024: policymakers ignoring the housing shortage.

Happy New Year, and may it be one of abundance!
January 1, 2025 at 3:12 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Now on The Stoop, @annemariegray.bsky.social — Executive Director of @opennewyork.org — shares what it took to pass City of Yes.

Learn about making housing abundant in NYC: how we got here, what we've done, and where we're headed. Plus, how you can learn from their work. https://buff.ly/3VLEHFa
December 19, 2024 at 3:12 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Hawai'i is a long way from many of us, but the fight for abundant homes there will hit close to home.

Listen in to the latest episode of The Stoop as @sterlinghiga.bsky.social discusses wins in Hawai'i & how they made them happen. Available wherever you get your podcasts! rss.com/podcasts/the...
December 3, 2024 at 6:31 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
We're going all the way to Anchorage, Alaska with Graham Downey on the latest episode of The Stoop!

We cover how Anchorage achieved a unanimous vote to eliminate parking minimums, whether or not NIMBYs actually exist, and much more. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts! rss.com/podcasts/the...
November 19, 2024 at 4:34 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Deep purple politics and divided government — up next on The Stoop! Learn from Kirin Goff of Arizona Neighborhood Project and Jake Hinman of Mavrik Policy Group as they share insights from pro-housing work Arizona on our next episode.

Tune in wherever you get your podcasts! rss.com/podcasts/the...
November 1, 2024 at 2:45 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
Austin's made big progress on housing, and in the latest episode of The Stoop, you can hear from one of the advocates making it happen, Felicity Maxwell!

Learn from the work led by @aura-atx.org and others to build an abundant Austin wherever you get your podcasts. rss.com/podcasts/the...
October 22, 2024 at 5:23 PM
welcomingneighbors.us
On the first episode of The Stoop, @justupthepike.bsky.social's stories teach us not just how to start fixing our housing shortage but also why this work is so important.

Listen for all this and more wherever you get your podcasts: rss.com/podcasts/the...
October 9, 2024 at 3:27 PM