Not in My Backyard

Organizations that provide shelter, treatment, and support services for stigmatized consumers often face intense “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) resistance when siting services locally, even when residents endorse helping in principle. NIMBY reflects a multistakeholder conflict among stigmatized consumers, service providers, law enforcement, nearby residents and businesses, and policymakers over where services should be placed. We offer a marketing investigation of what drives NIMBY, motivated by a multi-year partnership with a nonprofit navigating sustained opposition to siting temporary housing and services. Across five studies, including stakeholder interviews, content analysis of city council and public comments, a resident survey, and preregistered experiments, we show that NIMBY is a distinct form of proximity-based resistance, not simply general dislike of a stigmatized group. NIMBY increases when people view homelessness as personally preventable: higher perceived personal responsibility increases disgust and reduces support for nearby shelters, while broader attitudes are less affected. Background explanations (for example, substance use versus a natural disaster) shift reactions, but they do not produce NIMBY on their own; disgust drives NIMBY primarily when responsibility is perceived as high. Finally, for donor outreach, individual-focused messaging can inadvertently increase perceived responsibility and NIMBY, whereas structural framing does not.