The Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation (TNRC) and the Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation (MHRC) hosted a teleforum called "A Municipal Guide to Responding to NIMBY" for city and public officials on Oct. 27.
NIMBY - also known as "Not in My Back Yard" - syndrome has been something the City of Thompson has been faced with while consulting the public with ideas on affordable, low-income housing, so it was apt that the teleforum fell while the city was still doing its "Speak up, Thompson!" community forums.
During the teleforum, put together by the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA), different representatives talked about NIMBY, what it is and how city and public officials can combat it, with real-life examples of what works and what doesn't in Canadian communities.
The teleconference focused on an affordability and choice today (ACT) toolkit that the organization created from interviews with planners, municipal staff, politicians and others that looks to defeat the protectionist and exclusionary attitudes sometimes used by community groups to uphold NIMBY.
Many concerns that community members bring up when faced with a possible set of low-income or affordable housing units in their area include worries that property values will go down; there will be more density and increased traffic; there will be more of a strain on public infrastructure and services; and more crime, to name a few. Officials at the teleforum say that to combat this type of thinking it helps to remind people of the provincial, federal and international human rights legislation that exists and the provincial planning acts that do not support "people zoning" or having only one group of people, based on their income or other factors, in one area of a community.
The forum also stressed the importance that the right tools are used to develop new housing units, including housing developers and providers and talked about other ways public officials could deal with people expressing NIMBY syndrome-like viewpoints. Ways it suggested people deal with this are education, public forums and engaging not just the developers but also possible future tenants of the housing units being proposed, to dispel any stereotypes or preconceived notions about them that may be in place.
Coun. Harold Smith chair of the city's development review committee and executive director of the recently established Northern Housing Operations (NHO) branch for Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation, says NIMBY has been a problem in Thompson before, but thinks it's probably the same as in other communities. He says one of the best ways to combat NIMBY syndrome is to create new housing units that are good quality.
"We should all have an interest in ensuring that housing - whether it's private sector housing or public sector - is done well. I think that's the number one part that we want to make sure that we're aware of when it comes to NIMBY, and the factors that drive that," he says. "I think quality is one of them. There are perceptions out there that are based on some observations in the community and I think we have to be aware of that."
Smith says NIMBY syndrome can lead to complications such as high concentrations of certain types of housing in certain areas in the community.
