Elizabeth Hansburg says she speaks for the future.
As director of People for Housing Orange County, she’s responding to local voices that unfailingly object to new housing — the so-called NIMBYs, for “Not In My Backyard.”
Hansburg, on the other hand, is a YIMBY — as in “Yes In My Backyard.”
“A city’s penchant to say no to new housing is part of the problem,” she said. “The voices in council chambers continue to be Harry and Harriet Homeowner. You know, the people with the time and the resources to petition their council members to essentially keep others out.”
“ … We saw the need for a voice in Orange County to represent the future of people that haven’t grown up and moved out of their parents’ house yet — or haven’t moved here.”
In the past five years, Hansburg and her supporters have appeared at about 100 city meetings to be that voice.
The group also has held online candidate briefings, local advocacy training and webinars on housing law. Over the past year, it worked with the Kennedy Commission and other affordable housing advocates to shine a spotlight on the lack of progress cities are making in adopting new housing plans, known as “housing elements.”
When the Orange County Council of Governments went to court to block a requirement that Southern California build 1.34 million new homes by 2030, People for Housing circulated a petition in support of the mandate.
Hansburg, 47, has won both praise and derision for her sometimes controversial stance supporting high-density and low-income development, even in affluent neighborhoods. But supporters say she is having an impact.
“Elizabeth is a passionate believer in housing for all,” said Lucy Dunn, a former state housing director and retired CEO of the Orange County Business Council. “She’s one of the hardest working advocates, taking a dream of an idea into a real powerhouse organization with results for the region.”
AmeriCorps service
A native of the Midwest and the East Coast, Hansburg earned a master’s degree in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
But her experience as an AmeriCorps volunteer, helping homeless people prepare for job interviews, did more to shape her eventual path to housing advocacy.
“That was the first time that I really saw up close what a lack of a home does to people,” she recalled.
She worked for two years as a Pennsylvania state planner, moving to Fullerton in 2006 to marry a California school teacher and start a family. She was working for a private consultant when inspiration struck again.
She attended an interview of San Francisco YIMBY leader Sonja Trauss by Dunn, the former state housing director. At the end of a session, Dunn turned to the audience and said, “We really need someone to start a YIMBY organization for Orange County.”
For Hansburg, it was “a call to action.” Within a year, she and others co-founded People for Housing.
Her daughter’s future
At first, Hansburg’s motivation was theoretical. We need more housing so people don’t have to flee the state or, worse, become homeless.
Then the issue became personal.
Her brother- and sister-in-law moved to Texas so their children could afford to live nearby — something improbable in Orange County. Now, Hansburg is worried about the future of her 15-year-old daughter’s generation.
“It will be her. It will be her, it will be her friends and her classmates,” she said. ” … (We need to) find a way to allow for more density, so kids like my daughter can stay in California.”
People for Housing survives on grants and volunteer labor. To date, Hansburg is the group’s sole employee, with the second employee expected to be hired next year. It has a mailing list of 2,500 people.
Supporters say Hansburg has a gift for explaining complex issues and inspiring others to get involved.
“Elizabeth is probably one of the most passionate people I’ve ever met as far as her desire to address homelessness and provide housing,” said Ann Owens of Lake Forest, a retired history teacher and volunteer housing advocate. “She’s out there every day, working to communicate how important this is. I think she’s an extremely strong voice in the community.”
Hansburg has transformed herself from “a bottom-up lay person” into a “recognized expert,” added Buena Park Community Development Director Matt Foulkes.
“Her advocacy resulted in affordable housing actually getting built,” Foulkes said.
Pawn of development?
Hansburg has her detractors as well.
As a Fullerton planning commissioner for three years, she drew the ire of some city council members as well as residents who fear new housing will create overcrowding and overwhelm the city’s infrastructure.
After several housing developments she championed got stalled by the city council, Hansburg had enough, announcing her resignation from the body last December.
“We have lost our ability to govern ourselves effectively under the current city council,” she said at her final meeting.
“Good riddance,” a blogger at the Friends for Fullerton’s Future website wrote in response.
Posting under the name Joe Sipowicz, the blogger had criticized Hansburg earlier, saying her vision for more housing would be a disaster for the city, calling her support for high-density development “hairbrained (sic) and even dangerous.” He also cited accusations that her movement is “a pawn of big development interests.”
The barbs added to Hansburg’s frustrations, said Fullerton City Councilmember Ahmad Zahra, who had named Hansburg to the planning panel three years earlier.
“All these (housing) projects were being stopped or delayed,” Zahra said. “I think she just wanted to go and advocate for housing in a setting where she can be more effective.”
For her part, Hansburg denies she’s working at the behest of developers.
“I’m working at the behest of the future,” she said.
The holidays, she added, are a good time to reflect on what it means to be a good neighbor and to welcome strangers from all social and ethnic backgrounds.
If homeowners can have a change of heart, she said, “that would be the Christmas miracle.”
Source: Orange County Register
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