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‘Granny Flats’ Play Surprising Role in Easing Housing Shortage

By May 23, 2023May 25th, 2023No Comments

By Erica Werner | The Washington Post

When Heather Millstone moved from Baltimore to Los Angeles and started house-hunting, she had one major goal: A home with a yard big enough to build another, smaller house so she could rent out one of the properties to supplement her income.

A few blocks away, Lali Grewal and his wife, Anne Marie, made a similar calculation when they moved to the city last summer. They’re now living in a tiny but cozy home behind a bigger house they’re fixing up to rent out.

Millstone and the Grewals are part of a trend that’s busting out all over the state, and — somewhat to the surprise of policymakers — has potential to play a significant role in addressing California’s housing crisis: the accessory dwelling unit.

Multifamily properties are incredibly difficult to build in the state’s major cities for reasons including lack of space, environmental laws, and neighborhood opposition. But build an ADU — a small detached house with its own utilities and entryway — and practically no one bats an eye. Multiplied thousands of times over, as has been occurring in recent years, and the structures begin to look like an important, if only partial, solution to the state’s affordable housing needs.

ADUs has been a very important strategy in our ability to expand the supply of housing,” said Lourdes Castro Ramírez, California’s secretary of Business, Consumer Services and Housing. “I’ve been very pleased to see how communities have embraced this approach, and I think that folks have been able to recognize the social, economic and community benefits of ADUs.”

The numbers tell the tale: More than 23,000 ADU permits were issued in California last year, compared with fewer than 5,000 in 2017 — which was around when ADU permitting began to take off thanks to legislative and regulatory changes in the state. The state now requires faster permit approval by localities, and establishes that cities must allow ADUs of at least 850 square feet — though many are much bigger. A number of other bills are being debated in Sacramento, including one by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D) that would allow property owners to sell their ADUs separately from their main houses.

Los Angeles dwarfed other cities last year in ADU permitting, issuing 7,160 in 2022, compared with 662 in San Diego, the city with the next-highest total of ADUs. By comparison, just 1,387 permits were issued in L.A. last year for single-family homes. The number of ADU permits issued in L.A. was second only to the 13,400 permits issued for multiunit structures.

California isn’t the only state where ADUs are taking off. Oregon has embraced them as well, as have some cities in Montana, and Washington state recently passed a law making them easier to build. In all, some 40 laws have been introduced throughout the country addressing ADUs in one form or another, although some are as simple as providing for a study of the issue, according to Salim Furth, director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

ADUs offer multiple benefits, supporters say: They tend to rent at relatively low prices, and they can be dropped into neighborhoods that are already densely populated but that are desirable because of their proximity to jobs, public transportation, schools or other amenities. Although local ordinances in L.A. and elsewhere aim to prevent their use as short-term AirBnB-type rentals, owners can use them for extra rental income, or to house friends, family or even their own grandmothers — harking back to the original “granny flat” moniker.

Experts note that even if an ADU is occupied by someone’s grandmother, that’s a home left available elsewhere, while at the same time keeping extended families together.

“The speed at which ADUs have been able to scale across the state has been really surprising,” said David Garcia, policy director for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California at Berkeley. “It shows a pent-up demand from homeowners to want to do more with their land,” Garcia said, adding that “because of California’s affordability crisis a lot of Californians are personally connected with someone experiencing housing insecurity,” leading some homeowners to want to do something to help.

Largely due to lack of supply, the cost to rent or buy property in California has become prohibitive for many residents, with the median rental cost in the state 41 percent higher than in the rest of the country, according to real estate site Zillow. Home prices are more than twice the national average. Homelessness is at crisis levels, and in recent years California has begun to see residents flee to Texas, Florida or other lower-cost states.

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