Yellow Jackets are predators of other insects so to have that many around you must have a very good habitat to support them. Look around (this will not solve the immediate problem) and find out why there are so many different nests, what is providing enough food to support that many of these wasps.
Since the Yellow Jackets by the steps are a threat to you then the nests in the ground can be treated with some carbaryl dust sprinkled around the entrance hols so the workers much walk through it on the way in so they track that poison down where it will kill those in the nest.

If you do a search on-line you'll find several environmentally friendly wasp sprays. I would certainly avail myself of something like that rather than be held hostage around my own house by wasps or yellow jackets. Good luck! I hope you can enjoy your home again.

Re: other insects. I don't know what Yellow Jackets prefer for their meal (other than my backside, which is where I was stung last year), but we have lots of dragonflies, spiders, other wasps and bees, horseflies (in the woods), etc. We are on a pond. it's bug central around here. These are the only ones I have issue with (well, I'm not crazy about the Japanese Beetles either, but what can you do).

I haven't found any nests in the ground this year. They all seem to be aerial. Either under the eaves, under the porch, tucked into the porch railing, etc.

This has some added info on wasps:

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Buzz

I had a problem with Yellow Jackets, Hornets and Wasps due to having Hummingbird feeders out. I accidently found a way to kill them naturally. Put some sugar water in a bucket about 6" deep and sit it out. They will drown themselves! (The bugs not the hummingbirds) Works great!

Most everyone suggests ways to kill off some of the workers but nothing to get rid of the problem, the nest where the workers come from that simply produces more workers to replace those lost. If the presence of a nest hinders your ability to enter or leave your house really drastic methods of control are necesasry. However it is not necessary to do anything about some Yellow Jackets flying around collecting food to take back to the nest, since they seldom will do any harm to you.

The last 2 years I have had a problem with yellow jackets.
One year they bore into the side of my garage and I had a huge nest. I had General Pest come out and spray inside the holes with Sevin and that killed them immediately.
Last year, they were putting up paper nests in the eaves, and along my picket fence using the cross piece to attach their nest. I had to spray a lot. I kept killing them in their nest and then broke up the nest.
You can buy wasp traps. They worked great. I bought one and it trapped about 2 dozen wasps. I had bought it in the fall. This year I am buying 4 traps and setting them up away from my house. And stocking up on spray. I will check every afternoon. They seem to be attracted to the south side of the house. The is the only way to stop them is to start in the spring and keep after them. Good luck!

Carbaryl (one brand is Sevin) is a broad spectrum poison that will kill any insect that contacts it so its use mst be done very carefully. Also understand that there are indications that carbaryl is suspected of making changes in several of the human organs as well as causing adverse health in humans. Because of the time delay from exposure to these adverse affects it is not easy to make a real cause and affect link.