Not In My Backyard: When Fear Shapes Communities

There are few phrases more revealing in community conversations than Not In My Backyard.

On the surface, it sounds reasonable. People want safe neighborhoods. They want stability. They want to protect what they’ve worked hard to build. Those desires are human and understandable.

But beneath those concerns often lies something deeper—fear of the unknown, fear of discomfort, and fear of proximity to suffering.

NIMBY is not just a zoning issue or a policy debate. It is a heart issue. It asks a difficult question of every community:

How close are we willing to be to pain we did not cause?

This reflection is not written to shame communities, but to challenge them. Because community is not built by distance—it is built by responsibility.

Misconception 1: “Homelessness Is a Personal Failure”

One of the most common foundations of NIMBY thinking is the belief that homelessness results primarily from poor choices. This narrative is simple, comforting, and deeply incomplete. It allows people to believe that what happened to someone else could never happen to them.

In reality, homelessness is rarely the result of a single decision. It is most often the outcome of compounding pressures—rising housing costs, stagnant wages, medical emergencies, domestic violence, mental health gaps, foster care exits, and systemic inequities. When these pressures collide, even the most responsible person can lose their footing.

When communities reduce homelessness to individual failure, they relieve themselves of collective responsibility. Compassion becomes optional. Solutions become conditional.

Community builds community when we recognize that vulnerability is universal—even if its timing is not.

Misconception 2: “Services Will Attract More Homeless People”

A frequent objection to shelters, outreach teams, or supportive housing is the fear that services will act as a magnet, drawing people from other areas.

The truth is far less dramatic. Most people experiencing homelessness are already connected to the communities where they receive services. They grew up there. They worked there. Their children attend school there. Their support systems—however fragile—are already rooted nearby.

Services do not create homelessness.
They reveal it.

What services do create is stability, accountability, and visibility—conditions that allow communities to respond with intention instead of reaction.

Misconception 3: “Homeless People Are Dangerous”

Fear thrives where relationships are absent. Media narratives often highlight extreme incidents, creating the illusion that homelessness and violence are inseparable.

In reality, people experiencing homelessness are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. Life without stable shelter is marked by constant vulnerability—to theft, assault, exploitation, and neglect.

Poverty itself is not a predictor of violence.
Isolation is.

When communities label people as dangerous, they justify exclusion. When they build relationships, fear loses its grip.

Misconception 4: “Help Should Be Earned”

Another cornerstone of NIMBY thinking is the belief that assistance should be contingent on behavior—sobriety, employment, compliance, or visible effort.

This belief misunderstands how crisis works. Stability does not come after recovery; it makes recovery possible. Expecting someone to meet long-term expectations while living in survival mode is unrealistic and unjust.

Dignity is not a reward for good behavior.
It is a prerequisite for change.

Misconception 5: “They Choose This Life”

The idea that people choose homelessness simplifies complex survival decisions into a single narrative of refusal or rebellion.

What often looks like choice is actually adaptation.

Many people avoid shelters because of past trauma, unsafe environments, rigid rules, or previous experiences of harm. Others remain unsheltered because available options separate families, prohibit pets, or lack accessibility.

Choosing between unsafe options is not true choice.
It is triage.

Misconception 6: “If We Make It Uncomfortable, They’ll Leave”

Hostile architecture, encampment sweeps, and criminalization are often justified as deterrents. These approaches promise cleanliness and order, but deliver displacement and distrust.

People do not disappear when pushed out. They move—often to less visible, more dangerous locations. Outreach relationships are broken. Progress is undone. Trauma deepens.

Displacement is not resolution.
It is avoidance with consequences.

Misconception 7: “Compassion Lowers Property Values”

Economic fear is often the unspoken driver of NIMBY resistance. Yet study after study shows that well-managed supportive housing and outreach programs do not decrease property values and often improve neighborhood stability.

But beyond data lies a deeper question:

What is the value of a community that protects property at the expense of people?

Strong communities are not defined by exclusion, but by how they care for their most vulnerable members.

Misconception 8: “It’s Someone Else’s Responsibility”

NIMBY language often shifts responsibility outward—the city should handle it, the county should handle it, churches should handle it.

While systems and institutions play critical roles, community responsibility cannot be outsourced entirely.

When everyone is responsible, no one is accountable.

Community begins when people stop asking Who should handle this?
and start asking How can we help?

Reclaiming the Backyard

At its core, NIMBY is not about geography. It is about proximity—to suffering, to complexity, to humanity.

The backyard represents the space where values are tested. It is easy to support solutions in theory. It is harder to live alongside them. But transformation has never happened at a distance.

Community builds community when neighbors choose courage over comfort, relationship over removal, and dignity over fear. When we stop pushing pain away and start building pathways forward, the backyard becomes shared ground—and shared ground becomes shared hope.

This is not the work of perfection.
It is the work of presence.

And presence changes everything.

By Marchand Vorderstrasse