iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 10/04/2026

Join WNN & @sightline.org for an elevator extravaganza TODAY 🛗 @stephenjacobsmith.com will moderate a chat on all things elevator reform with a brilliant panel: ✅️ Cassie Wilson of @1000oregon.bsky.social ✅️ @shaneboland.bsky.social ✅️ @uytaelee.bsky.social 🔗 www.sightline.org/going-up-or-...

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 03/04/2026

Elevators shouldn't just be for skyscrapers. 🏙️ Join WNN & Sightline on April 10 to talk accessibility & elevator reform 🛗 Moderated by @stephenjacobsmith.com, featuring Cassie Wilson of @1000oregon.bsky.social, @shaneboland.bsky.social, & @uytaelee.bsky.social 🔗 www.sightline.org/going-up-or-...

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 20/03/2026

Join WNN & @sightline.org to level up on elevators! 🛗 Going Up! Or, How to Get More Elevators as We Win More Homes 🗓️ April 10 🎙️ With @stephenjacobsmith.com, featuring Cassie Wilson of @1000oregon.bsky.social, @shaneboland.bsky.social, @uytaelee.bsky.social 🔗 www.sightline.org/going-up-or-...

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 15/09/2025

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.”

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 14/09/2025

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

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 13/09/2025

Live from New Haven, it’s WWNNN! ⭐️

A group of housing advocates gathered in a large hall

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 13/09/2025

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

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 17/07/2025

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.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 14/06/2025

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."

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 02/06/2025

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.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 01/06/2025

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!

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 31/05/2025

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!

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 01/05/2025

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...

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 28/04/2025

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.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 03/04/2025

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.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 30/01/2025

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. buff.ly/4h0X7u6

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 29/01/2025

When landlords expect demand for rentals to rise without more rental options opening up at the same time, rents go up. Shocking! 😱 buff.ly/4awSfKE

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 27/01/2025

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. 👀 buff.ly/40uFTOB

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 27/01/2025

"You can change zoning today, and it doesn't have to cost the kind of price tags that we see for other proposals." buff.ly/40wI2JI

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 01/01/2025

Things we're leaving in 2024: policymakers ignoring the housing shortage. Happy New Year, and may it be one of abundance!

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 19/12/2024

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. buff.ly/3VLEHFa

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 03/12/2024

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...

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 19/11/2024

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...

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 01/11/2024

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...

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 22/10/2024

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...

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 09/10/2024

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...

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 07/10/2024

Ever wonder how advocates for housing abundance do it? Thinking about joining the work? Learn from the best on our new podcast, The Stoop! Find our show wherever you get your podcasts: rss.com/podcasts/the...

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 25/06/2024

Idk, feels like “affordable housing” should include housing that is more affordable. www.ocregister.com/2024/06/25/l...

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 17/04/2024

Give us your biggest WINS this week, my dudes 😎

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 30/11/2023

Like, DAMN these are some beautiful poll numbers about building more apartments.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 18/10/2023

EXCLUSIONARY CITY STEP 1: Blithely do nothing in the face of a housing shortage. EXCLUSIONARY CITY STEP 2: When state proposes zoning standards to address the shortage, oppose them through the state municipal association. EXCLUSIONARY CITY STEP 3: Wonder why city is dying.

@statehousenews
POINT OF CONTENTION: Gov. Healey wants to allow accessory dwellings on the same property as a single-family home. Mass. Municipal Association, representing cities and towns, opposes that as a "potential preemption of local zoning decision-making."

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 09/08/2023

The recipe for winning pro-housing policy in Montana, in a single paragraph. (Also largely the same recipe used in every state major pro-housing policy has passed, regardless of partisan control). From Annie Lowrey's great new piece in @theatlantic.bsky.social.

Politics, for once, helped too. Montana had lower housing prices and fewer roadblocks to development than other states to begin with. Republicans with a strong libertarian streak, like Gianforte himself, are a powerful bloc, and happen to be the kind of folks thrilled to slash red tape. Joining them were anti-sprawl environmentalists, student activists, urban-density advocates, real-estate developers, and antipoverty liberals, creating a coalition spanning from the far left to the far right. The fact that Gianforte pushed so hard on the issue and that Montana’s legislature meets only once every two years put more pressure on those elected officials to get something big done.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 02/08/2023

Not expecting to read a better phrase than "parking is like pizza" anytime soon.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 25/07/2023

Apologies for the screenshot from the site-formerly-known-as-bird but simply had to be shared. Denouncing "pricey apartments" in front of a palatial McMansion worth millions of dollars is affordability trolling in its purest form. An instant classic of the genre.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 12/07/2023

Show me a picture on your phone that has your energy. Not a selfie.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 03/07/2023

Officially announcing six new associate member organizations of our network, taking us to 30 state & local pro-housing organizations in 19 states! This quarter, WNN added member groups in Arizona, Hawai'i, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Washington state, and Wyoming. Thread for more on each one.

Logos of all 30 members of the Welcoming Neighbors Network

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 08/06/2023

Particularly interesting in the recent Zillow polling is which demographics support new housing with up to 49 people per lot in their neighborhood by a PURE MAJORITY (rather than plurality). People age 18-49, people of color, renters, urban residents, and workers.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 08/06/2023

Across 29 American metros, a majority of urban residents (and renters & people under 40 & Latinos) support every type of infill housing in their neighborhood – everything from ADUs to large apartment buildings. www.zillow.com/research/missing-mid…

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 07/06/2023

Since there is some confusion as to why new apartments help prevent displacement & gentrification, we made a little explainer.

Where apartments are illegal: (Big fish chasing pool of little fish) Rich people outbid every working family for any property they want

Where apartments are legal (Pool of little fish chasing big fish) Working families pool resources to outbid rich people for a property we can all share

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 31/05/2023

The @nyt.bsky.social piece about Berkley by is somehow simultaneously kind & emotionally generous to exclusionists while also documenting how flippant they are about the needs of other & frankly just completely unhinged from reality.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 17/05/2023

A beautiful, friendly version of a six infill townhomes on a 5,000 square foot lot, each of which could inherently be purchased at a much lower cost than a new single-detached house on the same lot. Artistic rendering by Doug Klotz of WNN member Portland: Neighbors Welcome

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 17/05/2023

This is what lowering barriers to homeownership in amenity-rich communities looks like in practice. Five 1,200 square foot townhomes on a 4,500 square foot lot.

Five 1,200 square foot townhomes with 85 sf of private outdoor space per unit, on a 5,000 square foot lot. Image created by Habitat for Humanity.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 09/05/2023

The misperception that NIMBYs represent a majority of the population is why rooms like this spooked policymakers in Colorado, one of the youngest (10th) & most Latino (7th) state in America.

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Welcoming Neighbors Network @welcomingneighbors.us · 07/05/2023

This tweet from the planning director of Marin, CA is a textbook example of exclusionist sentiment disguised as social justice. The crux is "better to have no affordable housing than for its residents to park on the street & inconvenience rich people looking to park on shopping trips."

Tweet from Sarah Jones, Marin planning director:

There's a big Smartest Boy Urbanist™ vibe in the "parking hurts affordable housing" position. Yes it does - and also, low income people need cars more than high income people. That's because our land use and transportation systems have been built by and for rich people.

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