Pro-Housing Power Building: How to Build a Winning Coalition for State-Level Advocacy

It’s always easier to do nothing than to do something. If you’ve ever sat through a public hearing, you know NIMBYs don’t have creative ideas about how to solve our collective housing shortage. They just show up and say NO. Which is why it's easier for Planning Commissioners and City Councilors to stick to the status quo instead of approving new homes.

As YIMBYs, our job is to make it easy for decision-makers to say YES. And what do our elected decision-makers value? Support from a broad range of constituents. This is why bi-partisan coalitions are so effective. Here’s how to build one:

Abundant housing requires abundant alliances

As you build your coalition, think of housing’s natural allies, like transit and bike advocates. These are the easiest groups to recruit. You probably already collaborate with them on a regular basis!

But don’t count out those you think may disagree with you. For example, tenants rights groups! A lot of tenant advocates agree with many of our values, but their organization simply doesn’t have the time, energy, or resources to devote to long term solutions when they’re facing short term crises. Joining your coalition can help provide that needed capacity.

Engaging and joining forces with unlikely partners is a key strategy for overcoming skepticism or resistance from elected officials who care a lot about a specific issue. So as you build your coalition, look around and ask yourself: Who is in the room? Who isn’t? And how can I bring them in?

There’s plenty of work to go around

Work with your new allies to figure out where your priorities overlap But understand that your #1 policy priority might be different than theirs, and that’s okay! The value of your coalition should be to provide low-effort, high-impact advocacy opportunities, like sharing coalition calls to action among their membership.

As you identify and meet with potential coalition members, remember to always be ready to close the deal. Ask them directly: “Will your organization join our coalition?” Putting yourself out there like that can be scary, but you can’t get what you don’t ask for!

Plan for disagreements

Coalitions are distinct from transactional partnerships. They require members to collaborate, inevitably disagree, and respectfully resolve conflict. As coalition leaders, it will be your job to provide room for structured disagreement with paths toward resolution.

Here are some keys for proactively managing members when they disagree:

1. Create clear coalition guidelines that center shared values and goals. Write these down and require coalition members to sign on to uphold these rules.
2. Address disagreements early. Foster an environment where members feel safe to respectfully discuss their disagreements.
3. Build in flexibility to your coalition structure. Consider having member “tiers” that allow members to engage on different levels when there is disagreement about a certain policy position.

Successfully building a broad coalition will bring together members that are at odds with each other in other policy areas (i.e. tenants advocates and apartment associations). Remember that your job as a coalition leader is to bring the focus back to areas of mutual interest and shared goals.

How do I get started?

Reach out to YIMBY Action’s Senior Campaigns Manager, Joh Gelhbach, at [email protected] for advice. Also, and most importantly, get out there and start talking to potential allies! Today’s happy hour attendee can be tomorrow’s coalition partner.