The YIMBY Law Conference Get Tickets

San Francisco, CA

September 28, 2026

Building more housing requires the right people working from the right playbook. It takes lawyers who know the cases, researchers who know the data, and policymakers who know how to turn both into results. The YIMBY Law Conference brings them together. Join us September 28 in San Francisco for a day of programming on implementation, policy design, and housing project advocacy, followed by an evening reception. Stay tuned for the DC edition of the conference happening later this year!

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Programming

Enforcement

How housing law gets applied on the ground — from builder's remedy to local permitting fights.

Policy design

Frameworks that produce more housing — what the research says and what practitioners are building.

Project advocacy

Litigation strategies for specific housing projects — how to win approvals and fight bad denials.

Conference Agenda

Where two sessions are listed for the same time, choose Main Hall or Breakout Room. Speakers to be announced.

8:30 – 9:15 AM · Breakfast & Networking

9:15 – 9:45 AM

Main Hall · Plenary

Opening Remarks

Framing remarks that set the intellectual tone for the day: what does it actually take to design housing policy that gets implemented, not just passed on paper?

10:00 – 10:45 AM

Main Hall · Policy

Designing Policy for Outcomes

Policy design — not just political will — has a huge impact on whether housing actually gets built. A look at how upzoning affects housing supply, and what it means for writing the next generation of housing laws.

Breakout Room

Two Years After Sheetz: Fighting Impact Fees in the Courts

10:45 – 11:30 AM

Main Hall · Policy

Rewarding Outcomes: ROAD Act Case Study

How a policy that started as the BUILD Act became a section of the ROAD to Housing Act: rewarding cities that build more housing than average with additional Community Development Block Grant funding, and penalizing cities that build more slowly.

Breakout Room

Cutting Edge Entitlements with David Balducci

11:30 AM – 12:15 PM

Main Hall · Enforcement

Designing Policy for Enforcement

Laying out the policy foundation needed to build an effective housing-law enforcement ecosystem.

Breakout Room

Using SB79

12:15 – 1:00 PM · Lunch

1:00 – 1:30 PM

Main Hall · Enforcement

A Conversation with the Attorney General's Housing Justice Team

A conversation with the Housing Justice Team at the California Department of Justice on how state-level enforcement can accelerate local housing production. Explores the tools state government has to hold jurisdictions accountable to housing law and how the AGs office interactes with activist enforcement orgs featuring Attorney General David Pai and Housing Justice team members Matthew Struhar and Alex Fisch.

1:45 – 2:30 PM

Main Hall · Enforcement

Housing Enforcement Ecosystem

A panel of attorneys representing the major third-party nonprofit housing law enforcement organizations in California on what's worked, what hasn't, and how cases get chosen.

2:30 – 3:15 PM

Main Hall · Project Advocacy

The Evidence for Organizing: How Advocates are Effecting Implementation

An evidence-based look at whether housing project advocacy actually moves the needle. (Spoiler: yes.)

3:30 – 4:15 PM

Main Hall · Project Advocacy

Rubber Meeting the Road: Political Organizing to Get Housing Actually Built

Laws aren't self-enforcing — they just give advocates and developers more opportunities to fight for housing. A look at how organizers turn legal wins into lasting policy through hearings, coalitions, and sustained political pressure.

4:15 – 4:30 PM

Main Hall · Project Advocacy

Closing Keynote: What's Next

Why sustained engagement, not just policy wins, is what drives lasting change — plus a first look at the new YIMBY Law Policy Handbook.

5:00 – 6:30 PM · Networking Reception

Meet Our Speakers

The lawyers, researchers, and policymakers leading the day's Policy Design and Implementation tracks.