A Backyard Solution to San Francisco’s Housing Need
By Supervisor Joel Engardio
The debate over where to put new housing — and how tall it can be — fuels much of San Francisco’s raging NIMBY/YIMBY culture war.
But most residents are not warriors in the political fights over zoning maps and building heights. They’re trying to solve real-life housing problems: Where can my adult children live in San Francisco and start their own family? Where can I house and care for an aging parent? Where will I live when I’m done with climbing stairs and maintaining a large home?
There's a way to answer these questions without changing any building heights in neighborhoods. That’s why I’m proposing a law to let homeowners build a small home in their backyard — an Accessory Dwelling Unit — that can be sold separately as a condominium.
Backyard potential
The backyards in the Sunset neighborhoods I represent as a city supervisor are full of potential. Building ADUs gives longtime homeowners much-needed space for extended family. ADUs also give seniors a place to downsize without having to leave their neighborhood or San Francisco. ADUs built and sold as condos provide opportunities to maximize the value of a family’s property and create generational wealth.
The Sunset Chinese Cultural District reports that many homeowners in the Sunset are Chinese immigrants in “house rich, cash poor situations where additional housing stability is needed for them to stay in the Sunset.” When immigrant and working families put down roots in western and southeastern San Francisco decades ago, many bought modest homes when property was less expensive.
For residents whose entire life’s work and savings are in their homes, often the only way to access that wealth is by selling and moving elsewhere. This hurts San Francisco as valued community members disperse to other cities. That’s why one of the key housing strategies for the Sunset Chinese Cultural District is to support working families who are homeowners in building ADUs that can be “independently titled and sold separately from the main property.”
Easier to build with less contention
San Franciscans will still need to embrace more multifamily housing and height increases, as many are already beginning to do. My legislation allowing up to six stories on corner lots was approved by the Board of Supervisors last year — and supported by every mayoral candidate. Today, Mayor Lurie is asking supervisors and residents to accept up to eight stories on transit and merchant corridors.
As the mayor’s rezoning plan is debated this summer, we don’t have to wait for much-needed multistory housing. ADUs can be created faster, cheaper, and with less contention than apartment buildings. ADUs do not require paying for land or major new infrastructure. They can be built with pre-fabrication construction, which costs significantly less per unit than large multifamily buildings. Many westside residents worry about taller buildings and disruptions from construction, but ADUs increase housing density without adding tall new buildings.
Homeowners with equity in their properties will be able to secure financing to build the new units. After they are built, any increase in net assessed property value can be tied to the new ADU.
My ADU condo legislation also protects tenants living in existing apartments: no tenants can be displaced because the law only allows for new construction in empty backyards.
Seattle success story
San Jose and Berkeley already allow ADU condos, using a state law authored by Phil Ting when he represented western San Francisco in the state assembly. San Francisco should take advantage of this law, too.
Similar legislation has proven successful elsewhere. In 2018, Washington state allowed ADUs to become condos. The next year, Seattle reformed its rules to make it easier to build both attached and detached ADUs in residential areas — and ADU permits surged. There was a fourfold increase from 246 permitted units in 2018 to nearly 1,000 in 2023. More than a third were detached ADU condos.
Seattle found that ADU condos are popular because they sell for 40 percent less than the price of a single family home on the same parcel.
In the Sunset alone, there are thousands of backyards where an ADU could be built. The same is true throughout much of the city. That’s a lot of opportunities to help first-time home buyers find stable, affordable housing in San Francisco. Let’s create it.