Backyard Rental Units as a Means to Address the Housing Shortage

Backyard rental units, officially known as Accessory Dwelling Units or "ADUs", are being encouraged by Local governments to be constructed in the Bay Area in order to increase density without significantly altering neighborhood's characteristics. ADUs not only increase affordable housing inventory, but enable homeowners to maximize their use of space, and generate value. Some Bay Area homeowners build ADUs to house family or they downsize to the ADU and rent out the main house. Others rent out ADUs for extra income. The workshop will discuss practical issues regarding the recent liberalization of building codes in Palo Alto and surrounding areas. This will include "tiny house" design concepts, prefab versus traditional construction, as well as ADU costs, incentives, and ways to finance construction.