Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: ADUs

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

Accessory Dwelling Units are now legal in single-family home zones in our 
city. In fact, it was in recognition that a great many homes had 
"illegal" units in them, and that these "mother-in-law" apartments filled 
an otherwise unmet need in the city's housing supply. 

Like Sharingwood, RoseWind is a lot-development model, with each family 
building to their own taste and budget. And like Sharingwood, a number of 
us have chosen to build apartments in our homes. Many of our homes are on 
slanting ground, so the daylight basement which results is often a good 
place for an ADU. 

It might be noted that these are not duplexes-- the apartment is 
typically a lot less than half of the home. In most cases, a basement, or 
partial basement, in a house that has two floors above. 

Where we live, and with units being built and paid for by the individual 
lot owners, it is not economical to build a rental. Which is to say, the 
cost of building the finished space, along with the additional kitchen, 
bathroom, heating arrangements, etc, cannot be recouped from rental 
income. Say a one bedroom apartment is 450 sq feet. At $100 a sq foot, 
that's $45,000. That's a lot of monthly rental payments of $350. Even if 
you adjust the construction costs down and the rent up, they don't meet. 
Plus your renter uses heat, power, water, and so forth, as well as 
increasing maintenance costs. 

And we have at least five such units here. They were put in for their 
usefulness to the owners. One elderly lady expected (correctly) that she 
would need a live-in assistant to take care of her. Two other families 
anticipate that grown children or aging parents could some day need to 
live with them. In my case, the house was a gift from my father, and by 
building the apartment with his money, and then collecting the rent 
myself, I have a way to support a far better house than my income 
normally would.  I also imagine that one day I might be an old lady 
living alone and move into my apartment myself, and rent out the big 
house upstairs to people of my choice, and thus get to stay in my 
community. Another family uses theirs alternately as guest and teen 
space, and as income supplementation. 

The several renters here are pretty much uncontrolled. Our family density 
is low, with many households of one or two people, so a few rentals don't 
give us a population crunch. Some renters are quite invisible, maybe even 
unknown to most others in the community, and some are regular 
participants in community suppers and socials. 

As for what can be designed in a community that is centrally designed, 
the group might consider having a few "studio" units, like I remember 
seeing on the plans for Highline Crossing. Though I suppose those were 
not rentals, they would cater to a smaller or lower-income household. 
Another project I heard described included "single-room-occupancy" 
homes--- a group house where there were four bedroom/bath units upstairs, 
for four singles,  or single parents, with shared living room and kitchen 
stuff on the first floor. This would be ideal for rentals, but would 
entail someone, or the whole group, being a landlord, which not everyone 
wants to do. 

In short, ADUs are useful, but are built in spite of, rather than because 
of, their economic effect.