For decades, social scientists and practitioners have viewed public opposition to land-use change, including the development of affordable housing, through the lens of NIMBYism (“Not in My Back Yard”). Currently, there are two main limitations with research on the subject. First, much of what is understood about community opposition to affordable housing is investigated through the perspectives of third parties, such as developers and government officials, based on their experiences with the broader public. Second, there is relatively little qualitative research on what drives support from individuals and communities during the affordable housing development process. These constraints mean that knowledge of community reactions to affordable housing is both speculative and highly circumscribed.

Building on a “strengths-based” approach inspired by Kurt Lewin’s force-field analysis framework, this research seeks to close these gaps by better understanding how community members describe their own support for affordable housing. To this end, I conducted 19 in-depth interviews with individuals connected to affordable housing issues in Washtenaw County, Michigan e.g. nonprofit leaders, current and former government officials, small business owners, and developers. Although my interview pool was similar to that of previous research, the analytical focus on personal support for affordable housing offers a fresh perspective to the field. I found that community leaders largely couched their support in the community-level benefits of affordable housing and in their own personal values, particularly those of equity and fairness. Looking to public education campaigns, I use these results to elaborate on untapped opportunities to advocate for affordable housing in Ann Arbor, MI, by centering campaign messaging on these themes. Overall, this study has demonstrated that we must look beyond merely responding to perceived “NIMBY” reactions and learn how to amplify the existing sources of support already existing in the community when advocating for affordable housing. This new approach to understanding and leveraging public support could be replicated in other contentious land-use change scenarios of public goods, including the siting of renewable energy generation and other human service facilities.