SMC Civil Grand Jury Questions Reliance On ADUs To Meet Housing Goals

REDWOOD CITY, CA — A civil grand jury in San Mateo County is calling for the county and its communities to stop using accessory dwelling units to meet mandated affordable housing goals until more proof can be given that people with lower incomes are actually living in them, according to the jury's report released Monday.

The report, entitled "Accessory Dwelling Units: Affordable Housing's Panacea or Prevarication?" said that several Peninsula communities are using accessory dwelling units to meet as much as 80% of their state-mandated affordable housing goals to avoid building new multi-units.

The civil grand jury, a panel convened in each county around the state annually to investigate and report on local government operations, is concerned that counting ADUs as affordable housing will lead to cities issuing fewer construction permits for deed-restricted low-income apartments and homes. Deed restrictions can ensure that housing remains affordable for several decades.

Without accountability through oversight and regulations, low-, very low-, and moderate-income housing now planned in some San Mateo County jurisdictions may end up existing solely on paper and never in operation," reads the grand jury report.

The issue is most acute in Atherton, Hillsborough, Portola Valley and Woodside, which submitted affordable housing plans made up of 50 to 80% ADUs.

ADUs — sometimes called granny flats or in-law units — are small homes that share a lot with a larger primary residence. It may be a standalone unit or attached to the primary residence.

There is little regulation to ensure that these ADUs are used by low-income tenants, the jury found. The units are often rented out to friends and family of the homeowners, according to the Association of Bay Area Governments, which is cited in the report and says the practice can also "inadvertently exacerbate patterns of segregation and exclusion."

"If minorities are underrepresented among homeowners, the families and potentially friends of the homeowners will be primarily white," ABAG wrote in its "Draft Affordability of Accessory Dwelling Units" report. "Additionally, ADUs often do not serve large families, another important fair housing concern."

The jury called for San Mateo County and its communities to stop using ADUs to meet state-mandated affordable housing goals until they develop and implement a system to verify if ADUs are being rented to low-income residents, and incentivize ADU owners to adopt deed restrictions, among other items.

San Mateo County and each of its 20 cities' governing bodies must respond to each of the report's findings within six months of its publication.

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