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Comment by wanderingmoose | Hacker News Reader

My understanding is you are already allowed to build an ADU (additional dwelling unit) due to state laws.

What I've seen in my city (LA adjacent) is the city can find really creative ways of making adding an ADU very expensive. On my block the same contractor built 2 different ~500 sq ft units on two different lots. They both were a garage tear down replaced by a 1 bedroom unit above a garage.

The first unit was done right after the law change allowing ADUs, and cost ~140k. The second, started 18 months later was ~270k and the owner had to pay for things like repaving the ally and upgrading the sewers.

So even the small steps are being impeded.

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1/ who actually wants to live in a ADU?

2/ adding 1 more unit to a plot is hardly going to make dent in the crisis.

We need to look at Asia to see how they offer affordable house: giant high density housing complexes with ground floor grocery stores and shopping malls for convenient access.

> who actually wants to live in a ADU?

The homeless. The poor. Young students. Artists. Elderly. Refugees.

That is anyone who can't get anything better. ADUs are useful housing for those who are on the edges, but pretty much all of the above wants better - they just can't afford it.

If money wasn't a limit how would that change your housing? Indoor pool? Bowling alley off your bedroom? servant quarters? Everyone has a limit - I listed things that most of us would be not sure if they are worth it or not, but with money not being the limit maybe we would. However because money is a limit most of us don't seriously look at those things even though it is possible now (you might need a zoning variance to fit a bowling alley on your lot, but if you are reading this it probably is an affordable addition if you really want it)

> The homeless. The poor. Young students. Artists. Elderly. Refugees.

They would prefer to live in an ADU instead of a private apartment?

Why can't society give them something better by building more affordable housing rather than living in a tiny home in someone's backyard?

Case in point: my son and his music/business partner have just moved to Santa Fe, where housing for young/lower income people is almost impossible to find. Because of the "tradition" of building casitas here for centuries, we effectively have ADUs, and the only thing our son's friend could find that was affordable was essentially a very small ADU/casita.

Is it a dream home? No. Is it an acceptable living space while someone gets their feet on the ground, starts figuring out a new job/life? Absolutely.

I think we are both agreeing that ADUs are the lesser of two evils (ADU vs homelessness), but why settle when we have the resources to do better?

Well, in part because agreement about what is better is hard to come by. More single family housing? Townhouses? Small apartment complexes? Large apartment complexes?

You could say "well, how about all of the above?" but that just elides the tension between sprawl-based development and increasing urban density, which is also not a matter of widespread agreement. Many people don't like sprawl, but they also don't want dramatically increased urban density (or at least, not near them).

No Single family housing; We can't create more land. No Townhouses; because they are not dense, lack the ability to easily co-mingle commercial and residential zoning (which is important b/c walkable cities means you don't need a car to get to work or the grocery store). No small apartment complexes; not high dense enough.

Large apartment complexes with ground-level commercial space <- winner winner chicken dinner.

There are a lot of people who want their own space, but can't afford their own apartment. It is ridiculously easy to rent out spaces like this in Southern CA. If you post an ad for it on Craigslist on Friday, it will be rented by Sunday. Multiple people will be interested.

They can't afford the apartment, because there are very few apartments to rent. In Vietnam or Hong Kong houses millions of low income people in apartments.

We don't have to settle for less.

Is the rent affordable in Hong Kong? I think Hong Kong has some of the highest housing costs in the world.

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