system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
It's simply self interest. I'll paint the picture: It's easy to think about the spoiled rich guy. But imagine you and your SO are lower-middle class, and have been saving for a house for a decade, foregoing vacations and other things to do so. You finally buy it, after putting down tens of thousands and move in. Your happy and going about your life just getting by due to the high mortgage, but look dorward to refinancing in the future and lowering that expensive mortgage (and get rid of the PMI). A few months later a developer comes in to build section 8 housing, which is great but it will reduce home values in the immediate area. Now that same house is now worth much less, but that mortgage remains the same. With section 8 housing, unfortunately along comes an increase in crime, increases in drug use, and a dozen other things that get impacted. These are the bulk of your NIMBYs

One would think (especially if we're talking CA where I grew up), maybe we could take some of that train money (or from a dozen other things), and use it to purchase that poor couples home (imminent domain type thing) and get rid of NIMBYs. Definitely not an easy issue to solve - seems like there are always casualties no matter what you do
gpt
Crime is definitely my concern. I'm not rich by any means  I have a modest single level house in a small, older neighborhood. It's a nice suburban area. There's not much crime at all, at least, no real violent crime/break-ins/theft/gang activity. I don't want to deal with that and unfortunately it goes hand-in-hand with low income housing.

I plan on staying in this home a good, long while. I'm not thinking of it's resale value, or it's value as an investment. I simply don't want to worry about violence near my home. I don't want to be a target of opportunistic theft. I don't want drug deals going down on my street. I want to feel safe outside. I don't want my neighborhood to fall into neglect and disrepair.

Maybe that's selfish, but I don't think it's really asking to much to say I'd rather not invite the crime associated with low-income residences to my immediate area.