Stigma Drives the NIMBY Mentality

Before his shoulder injury, Sean Pearce never thought he could face homelessness. Unable to pay rent, he was evicted from his home of 19 years in Sydney, Australia, describing those weeks as the worst of his life. He now lives in a second-hand van, battling depression and other mental health concerns. Pearce feels judged by his community, leading him to cut off from friends and social media. He emphasizes that not all homeless people struggle with substance abuse and describes the immense challenges of trying to get back on his feet.

Sean’s story is an increasingly common one in Australia, in Canada, and indeed in much of the world as inequalities eat away at the social fabric that many had taken for granted. Low wage growth and an unprecedented increase in rental costs are squeezing more and more people out of the housing market everywhere. Housing has not been made a priority in wealthy countries like Australia and Canada, and so the haves and have-nots feel further apart than ever.

And yet, the solution of building more housing for people who need it is often vehemently opposed by existing communities. Much like in Canada, “Australia definitely has a history of major stigma associated with the construction of low income housing,” says Australian Council of Social Services chief executive Cassandra Goldie. Less than a kilometre from where Sean’s van is parked saw an affordable housing project proposed to ease the housing crisis, but residents engaged during the approvals process and opposed to the development cite issues including traffic, noise, disruption caused by construction and loss of sunlight.

Many cite safety concerns, fear of thefts, trespassing, potential violence, and the fear of potentially creating “a ghetto type environment”.

And so, of 21 submissions tendered to the proposal, all but five were opposed. The only silver lining here is that a handful of proposals were accepted at all, because all too often, residents of neighbourhoods simply conclude that they’ve got theirs, so why should they allow themselves to be inconvenienced by those who still need housing?