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YIMBYtown

@yimbytown.bsky.social

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The national convening for the pro-homes movement. Happening now in New Haven, Connecticut! 🏘️🚍🍕

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YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 1d

Email your testimony supporting single stair reform to [email protected] with “2026 Public Comment” in the subject line by Oct. 11th!

DesegregateCT @desegregatect.bsky.social · 1d

Check out this OP-ED from DesegregateCT Advocacy Fellow Amit Kamma. By reforming outdated single-stair rules, it will be easier to construct more "missing middle" homes and redevelop older properties, which can help make safer more affordable communities. ctmirror.org/2025/10/06/w...

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 21d

Thank you to the 1,000 pro-homes advocates who joined us in New Haven this year. We'll see you next time!

That's all, folks!
THANK YOU FOR JOINING US AT THE BIGGEST YIMBYTOWN YET! SEE YOU NEXT TIME!

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 21d

You can find some of the speakers here: @parkerwelch.bsky.social @cityjane.bsky.social @chris-gannon.bsky.social @alexhrwtz.bsky.social

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

We are wrapping up this thread as the session moves to audience Q&A. Thanks for following along!

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Naylor: "The building code is the next frontier. But we also need to question standard municipal ways of thinking."

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Naylor encourages the audience to ask, "Why can't we have nice things here?" when traveling. "It always comes down to regulations."

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Horowitz says pre-approved plans would be helpful here in getting single stair buildings going, especially for smaller (sub-12 unit) buildings.

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Maxwell asks, what's next?

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Welch says anywhere you've taken a vacation, take a picture of the buildings you like. Use that in presentations. In their threads, it was all pictures he had taken in Amsterdam or London. "People loved it. They're all over the place!"

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Jonathan Tarleton on housing awareness:

"Housing requires education on the issues. Once the awareness is there, you can then begin the process of proposing new homes."

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Gannon says when folks see a single stair building, there is a dramatic moment where they realize, "Oh! It's small!"

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Gannon: Now that we've legalized single stair in Austin, I'm doing a lot of presentation to developers and real estate agents to get this built.

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

14 states have passed a single stair bill in the last three sessions, says Horowitz, to audience applause. "That's wild success."

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Horowitz shows a visual comparing a double-loaded corridor building, a football field, and a single-stair building. This shows the distance residents must travel to reach a stairway, clarifying the myth that a single stairway is somehow less safe.

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

"Projects in my office take about eight years to go from initial calls to construction," says Naylor.

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Naylor is showing visual examples, which we'll try to share out post-conference.

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Reicher on co-ops and democracy as they coexist:

"People that live in co-ops have a higher tendency to practice democracy, vote in elections, and be civicly engaged."

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Naylor's research shows that single stair reform could, at rough estimate, unlock capacity for 130,000 new homes — just in greater Boston.

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Additional remarks from Andrew Reicher:

"Co-ops aren't a development activity. It is a people development activity. It builds community, and people can benefit."

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Welch says single family homes have a death rate of twice that of multifamily. This is not to invalidate the experience of fire officials, but it is about taking the broader view.

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Welch is a transportation engineer, often in the data on a real health and safety crisis: traffic deaths. Says that's once how residential fires were, but we designed our way out of it.

Around 40% of what a firefighter does is respond to car crashes.

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Also from Reicher:

"If we want more social housing and co-ops, we need to make the changes locally to make them happen."

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Andrew Reicher on housing production:

"Everywhere else in the nation, the most prolific way we create housing is the low-income tax credit (LIHTC)."

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Gannon says the firefighters' experience with a multifamily building is often having to rush in through a stairway. From that experience, two stairways WOULD be better. Three stairways would be better. Or no stairways! But the data show that is not better.

YIMBYtown @yimbytown.bsky.social · 22d

Horowitz says more people are dying from homelessness in the United States than from residential fires. We have to provide homes and make sure they are safe from fire risk.