2020 is the year to persevere on your Accessory Dwelling Unit

Improving the housing availability in California is more important than ever. And despite all the setbacks and challenges in 2020, thousands of homeowners are rising to the occasion and building their ADUs.

This post goes over some of the newest programs to launch to help ADU development and adoption around the state, and it goes into some of the big milestones we’re crossing.

I hope it will inspire you and put some wind in your sails!

Free ADU Programs launched in August 2020

LA ADU Accelerator Program

The City of Los Angeles launched this program to help older Angelinos find housing they can afford, and it’s great for homeowners too.

“LA ADU Accelerator Program increases the supply of housing older Angelenos can afford.“

Homeowners who own a property with an ADU (with a certificate of occupancy) apply to the program. And then LA will find them tenants, vet the tenants to make sure they can afford the place, and it’s as easy as that.

If you’re interested, they’ve just re-opened the application process to homeowners and you can apply for the LA ADU Accelerator Program for the next couple weeks.

Homeowners receive the following monthly rental payments for their units:

Napa Sonoma ADU Center

In other news, there’s an incredible offer from the Napa Sonoma ADU Center to get free ADU consultations.

The ADU Center is a non profit based in Napa County and Sonoma County so they’re not trying to sell you anything - they have a mission to increase the availability of affordable housing in the counties. And they hope that by helping homeowners build more ADUs, they can do that. So you get free professional advice with no strings attached.

Normally these site visits from a professional cost $300-$500 so this is a pretty incredible deal. They might not be free forever as this is a pilot program, so hop on while you can.

If you’re a homeowner in either county and you genuinely want to build an ADU or JADU, this program is for you. Read more about the free consultations and apply for one here.

Outside Napa, Sonoma and Los Angeles

If you’re not in an area served by one of these programs, don’t fret. Share your address with me, and I’ll let you know when new programs open up in your area.

If you know somebody in Napa County, Sonoma County, or Los Angeles, please consider sharing this article with them or posting it on your social media accounts - the more we can spread the word and get homeowners to use these programs, the more likely they’ll receive more funding in the future.

ADU milestones we achieved in 2019 and 2020

Building your ADU can be daunting at times, but it’s definitely worth it.

That’s why tends of thousands of homeowners have gotten it done over the past few years. Here’s the data to prove it and hopefully encourage you to keep persevering.

Over 14,000 ADU permits in 2019

In 2019, over 14,000 ADU permits were issued all over the state, an 11-fold increase over three years.

Check out this amazing data set on Kol Peterson’s blog and you can even dive into a google doc that has every single California jurisdiction broken out.

You can see exactly how many ADUs permits were issued in each of California’s 527 jurisdictions (every county and city!) by year.

Very useful tool.

And whenever I’m feeling the crushing weight of 2020, I take a peek at these numbers and it brightens my day. Because this is the kind of scale that starts to make a difference on housing affordability!

This is the kind of scale we need to achieve to help our communities.

“But these are through 2019”, I hear you say…

Continued growth in ADU permits in 2020

The number of permits being issued is still increasing year over year, despite the unprecedented challenges we’ve faced in 2020.

Kat Gordiienko at Builty (we wrote about Kat in our round-up of owner-builder blogs very recently) has crunched the numbers and shown us that the number of permits issued continues to grow in 2020.

Here’s a line chart for permits issued in San Jose in 2020 vs preceding years.

As you can see, while growth has slowed in 2020, it’s still an upward trend. And that’s very encouraging.

That means despite all the setbacks of 2020 (pandemic, economic uncertainty, shelter in place preventing construction work, etc.) there is still a positive growth trend!

And this trend is true in most of the largest jurisdictions in California. Check out her website for more data.

If you’re a bit skeptical about all these numbers, I have one more graphic for you…

ADUs are all around us

If you drive around your neighborhood, you might not see any ADUs - and you might have a hard time understanding how all these numbers can be real.

But here’s the thing: ADUs are a form of hidden housing. Good designers can develop hundreds of units in an area without adversely affecting the character of the neighborhood.

Since they’re often in the backyard, or part of the existing primary residence, you might not even notice ADUs except for an extra mailbox or a split address like 123B.

Take a peek at this map of Oakland, with all the ADU permits issued by zipcode.

Look at all those beautiful dots, spread across so many different parts of the city.

You could drive around all day and not find more than a handful of these if you weren’t specifically looking for them.

Yet they’re all around us!

The ADU Universe is expanding nationally

1.4 Million extra units identified in USA

Freddie Mac released a study on the rise of ADUs, showing how many properties went onto the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) with some kind of secondary dwelling for the first time between 1997 and 2019.

And the results show a whopping 1.4 Million properties introducing some kind of guest house, granny flat, in law suite or ADU.

This isn’t just adding housing availability in California - it’s affecting the whole country.

My Tiny Contribution

My personal experience in the ADU space is mirroring this national trend too.

Some of my favorite Tiny Home (and Tiny Living) YouTubers reached out - and I’m helping with their ADU research!

Check out Living Tiny With the Bushes as they evaluate all the options for their Tiny Home on Wheels (THOW) and look at different communities and different business models that will allow them to continue living debt free.

It’s been a blast researching ADU regulations in Dallas Fort Worth, as well as other parts of Texas and other parts of the country. There are a million different rules about ADUs, THOWs, and all these forms of accessory structures, manufcatured structures, and dwelling units - so I’m excited about what the future holds.

Today we’re working on California.

But one day we’ll be able to help the whole country!

If you want to get started…

Just pop over to the “Get Started” page and share your email and street address with me.

Or subscribe to our YouTube channel or Facebook Group.

And please share this article with any friends in Los Angeles, Napa, or Sonoma! They’ll thank you for it!