Is Donald Trump a NIMBY or a YIMBY? Given that the housing crisis is a nationally front-line issue, whether the next president reflexively supports housing development is an important question. be.

But Trump is going all-in on housing, as he is on many other issues. It’s hard to know where he actually stands.

The idea of ​​eliminating zoning restrictions to produce more housing has had support in both parties at the federal level for decades. In a 1991 report entitled “Not in My Backyard: Removing Barriers to Affordable Housing,” bipartisan committee Jack Kemp, who was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development at the time, said, “Municipalities across the country are adopting zoning and subdivision ordinances, building codes, and permitting procedures to discourage the development of affordable housing.” “I am doing so,” he said. However, the federal government does not control local zoning, so its influence is limited.

As a former real estate developer and a general advocate of deregulation, Trump should be the anti-NYIMBY housing advocate: YIMBY, the backyard yes. in fact, In an interview with Bloomberg last summer., He opposed zoning, calling it “murder” and promising to lower housing prices.

Unless, obviously, doing so would threaten suburban areas with single-family zoning regulations, the most far-reaching restrictions on development in California and elsewhere. President Trump has consistently said the idea of ​​high-density suburban housing threatens the American way of life. “The destruction of the suburbs ends with us,” he said. swore during his first term.

NIMBYism crosses traditional political lines, suppressing housing in some of California’s most ostensibly liberal enclaves, but it also overlaps in many ways with Mr. Trump’s coalition. MAGA activists, who favor suburban homes and neighborhoods, are increasingly at odds with the YIMBY movement. Strong resistance to building more housing in places like Huntington Beach showed.

Recently, Trump and his company Blaming illegal immigrants for the housing crisissuggests that if we deport 10 million or so immigrants, the real estate market will be fine. However, illegal immigrants tend to occupy the lower end of the housing stock and often live in crowded conditions. So even if a mass deportation were to occur, it is unlikely to help millions of native-born Americans locked out of the market suddenly realize their dreams of owning a home in the suburbs.

One of the few concrete ideas President Trump has proposed to increase housing supply is to open up federal land to housing development. Last year, he floated the idea of ​​using federal land to build a “Freedom City,” a kind of unregulated enterprise zone for housing, commercial and commercial facilities. flying car.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, President Trump’s pick for Interior secretary, could be crucial to the administration’s housing strategy. Mr. Burgum will manage the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service, which own vast tracts of land in California and throughout the West, nearly half of which is federally owned. (The U.S. Forest Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, also claims ownership of large swathes of states and territories.) Much of the coverage of Burgum’s appointment has focused on the prospects for fossil fuel extraction from federal lands. However, Burgum may be the key. A plan to build housing on land in the United States.

But developing federal land is legally difficult, as is conveying such land to local governments that wish to build on it. For example, the Bureau of Land Management is in a constant battle with Clark County, Nevada, over whether more land should be made available for development in the Las Vegas area. Additionally, much of the federal land is mountainous, remote, or both.

Burgum has been a strong advocate of: zoning reform As well as housing development in general, the construction of higher density housing in cities and suburbs is also being considered, which seems to contradict the MAGA agenda in some ways. Mr. Burgum, a wealthy technology entrepreneur, has poured millions of dollars of his own money into the project. Revitalize downtown Fargo.

Of course, the federal government also owns a lot of land in urban and suburban areas. But the land is beyond Burgum’s control, and federal agencies with other mandates have proven extremely reluctant to give up the land for housing. Recent fighting over the Department of Veterans Affairs campus in West Los Angeles revealed.

During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt also promoted the idea of ​​building more housing on federal land. suburbs and rural locations. This effort led to some innovative ideas, but ultimately only a few lots were built.

Trump’s Free Cities is likely to suffer the same fate. It is difficult for the federal government to implement local zoning reform and housing development. It becomes even more difficult if the president cannot decide where he stands on the issue.

William Fulton is the editor and publisher of .california planning development report” He is a former Mayor of Ventura and former San Diego Planning Director.