Is the answer to the housing crunch right in your own backyard?

When the Almeda Fire tore through the Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon back in 2020, it took thousands of homes with it. The result wasn’t just a moonscape, but a housing crisis on top of an already-tight rental market.

Artist and contractor Jacob Fry, and his wife Elize, were spared the flames, but not the desire to help.

They had to do something, so they took out a loan to build two small rental units in their own yard. It was never about getting income, Jacob says: “It was more about the community and needing infill housing for people that had been displaced; [that] really was the main thing.”

They’re called ADUs, or Accessory Dwelling Units – small, fully-functional secondary homes located on the same property as a main home, usually in the backyard. They’ve been called granny flats, carriage houses, or mother-in-law suites. A wave of reforms has made it faster, cheaper, and (in theory) legally simpler to add these ADUs almost anywhere.

In California, at least three modest-sized units are now allowed on a single-family lot. They can’t be used as short-term rentals (so, no Airbnbs). The law allows for only long-term tenants – and it’s become a booming industry.

“It’s had more impact than any other housing law in the last 10, 12 years,” said Dana Cuff, professor of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA, who helped push through the original legislation. According to her, there are now 82,000 building permits right now in California.

“Sunday Morning” met Cuff in her ADU, constructed in what used to be her backyard. “There was kind of a half-dead citrus tree probably right here, and a treehouse for our kids,” she said. “You know, we did lose something in building the house. But we gained a lot more.”

They rent their original home to mostly young tenants just starting out, and they live in the ADU designed by her husband to fit like a Tetris piece onto their long, skinny lot. “Sprawl has hit the wall now,” said Cuff. “You can’t keep going out. So then, I mean, the beauty of that, from an environmental and a housing and an urban perspective, is that then you start building back in.”

It will come as no surprise when you’re talking about building in backyards that there are plenty of not-in-my-backyard critics. Some argue that parking, sewer and garbage – the infrastructure designed for single-family homes – is being stretched too thin. But in the aftermath of those Oregon fires, the Frys saw an opportunity.

“They say if you want to test your marriage, buy IKEA furniture,” said Jacob. His retort? “Built an ADU!”

It worked out – the Frys’ marriage survived, and so did the rental income from the ADUs. In fact, the buildings have almost paid for themselves, even though they continue to rent them well below market value.

“We want things to be affordable so that we can get people in that might not otherwise get a decent situation with a decent landlord,” said Jacob.

Elize Fry said, “Both the tenants that live there now are, like, young newlyweds. They’re in their early 20s and they both just got married.”

It’s compact living, to be sure, but if you design an ADU right, it can feel much bigger than it sounds. “It’s perfect,” said Kaetriauna Bowser-Smith. She, Jared Weber, and their nine-month-old daughter, Miller, have been living in these 400-square-feet happily for nearly three years now.

“We’ve tried to look at other places, just to even see what there is still on the market, and there’s nothing comparable to what we have,” said Bowser-Smith.

She said that were it not for the ADU option, they’d probably still be living at their parents’ houses.

Down the coast in Los Angeles, 72-year-old Mona Field turned her garage (which she said was being used for “everybody and their brother’s storage”) into a two-bedroom ADU. But she didn’t build the ADU for tenants; she built it for herself. “I knew I did not want to stay aging in a big house by myself,” she said. “I don’t feel cramped at all. I feel like I have a lot of space for one old lady!”

The ADU was her retirement home, which allowed her to offer her house as affordable housing for her daughter and her family: Nadine Levyfield, her husband, Charlie Marshak, and their two small kids. But there was still a question, one asked by almost everyone in the ADU space. “Even though we had separate spaces, would we be able to, you know, cohabitate on the same property in a functional way?” asked Marshak.

The answer, for them anyway, has been a resounding yes.

“We have regular standing dinners with my mom and the kids,” said Levyfield. “My mom helps with child care. We spend time together. We say, ‘Hey, do you wanna join us for a stroller walk?’ It’s amazing. We’re so grateful.”

It used to be a home in the suburbs with a white picket fence and two-car garage was all anyone would want. Today, people need housing more than cars, and backyard barbecues might not need an entire backyard. They may not be for everyone, but these days every square foot matters. ADUs offer a different lifestyle for a different age.

As professor Dana Cuff put it, “We have to start imagining new ways of living together well.”

     
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Story produced by John Goodwin and Mark Hudspeth. Editor: Ben McCormick.

     
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