Start here ▶️ Pro-homes messaging 101
Focus on people and places—and keep out of the weeds!
A Powerful Pro-Home Mantra: “More homes, all shapes and sizes, for all our neighbors.”
From “Me” to “We”: Shifting from an individual to a community mindset.
6 Tips for Talking Housing Solutions: Messages to make the case for more homes of all shapes and sizes in city neighborhoods.
Level up ⏩ Guidance for messaging key reforms
Talking points for pro-housing policy and politics
A Messaging Playbook for Parking Reformers: Road-tested talking points to outline the costs of excessive parking mandates and to promote the benefits of flexibility.
Why Statewide Housing Solutions Matter: Because local control can hurt local people, statewide policies become a kitchen-table issue.
Name Specific, Familiar Housing Types: Talk about triplexes, two-flats, and backyard cottages—not abstract “density”—to defuse the freak-out factor when neighborhoods allow more home choices.
Why Backyard Cottages Matter: Talking up accessory dwelling units—aka mother-in-laws, and backyard, basement, and bonus apartments—the attractive rental options we can easily tuck into existing neighborhoods.
Put a Friendly Face on New Housing Options: Photos pack an outsized punch. A case for showing, not telling, the homes that upzones bring to a community.
🎥 Video explainers to watch and share
Key pro-housing concepts summed up in seconds
Cruel Musical Chairs: Why Is Rent So High?
A powerful metaphor for housing scarcity, when people often naturally default to other root causes of high rent and home prices. A shared understanding about the housing shortage as a driver of costs, aligns focus on foundational pro-housing policy solutions.
NOTE: This video takes the gold! We tested the messages in this video, via Sightline polling and focus groups. Then, academic researchers at UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and Tulane University empirically measured the impact of the video against other pro-housing messages. They found that the effect of this video on land-use preferences was greater than three times larger than typical effect of a persuasive political communication.
Invisible Walls: Why Upzoning Matters
Wish you could talk about residential zoning policy at a party—without people walking away? Here’s a vivid visual for the ways—from rent and prices to exclusion, equity, and opportunity hoarding—zoning shapes our cities and our lives.
Housing Solutions Are Climate Solutions
A critical move to curb climate pollution is allowing more homes of all sizes in low-carbon city neighborhoods, close to jobs, schools, and transit. But most people don’t make the connection. Here’s how to tie housing policy to climate goals.
Zoning for All Kinds of Affordable Homes
Cities need different kinds of affordability, both subsidized housing for local people who need it, and enough naturally affordable, modest-sized, market-rate home choices for all the people who work in the community to afford to live there.