Sacramento is building more of these housing units. Will it help the affordability crisis?

More Sacramento residents are building Accessory Dwelling Units, long seen by housing advocates and elected officials as a potential solution to California’s housing affordability crisis.

Last year, 170 ADUS were constructed in Sacramento, up from 76 the year before, according to Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s office. Applications to build the smaller units also increased significantly.

The increase in new ADUS is part of a broader trend in the capital city. More than 3,300 housing units were built in 2021, according to city officials, above pre-pandemic levels. Another 3,764 were built during 2020. More than 1,200 of the units built last year were affordable to low and very low income residents.

Despite an increase in building activity, Sacramento remains far below its own housing goals.

According to the city’s Housing Element updated in August

2021, there will be a need for 10,463 housing units for extremely low- and very lowincome residents between now and 2029; those are families of four earning less than $43,150.

The gap stands at 6,306 units for low-income earners, 8,545 for moderate-income families and 20,266 housing units for those earning above moderate incomes.

“We still have work to do, but I’m proud that our city has steadily lowered the barriers to building a variety of infill housing types we desperately need to address our twin crises of affordability and climate change,” the mayor said in a blog post released by his office.

Sacramento officials said they have made it easier for residents to apply for building ADUS, also sometimes known as in-law units or “granny flats.”

Many other California cities, including Oakland and Los Angeles, have focused on the small units to help with their own crises; ADUS make up more than 20% of new housing units in Los Angeles.

The median home price in Sacramento stood at roughly $560,000 at the end of March, a 16% increase over the previous year. The median rent in Sacramento was $1397 per month for a one-bedroom unit and $1,832 for two bedrooms, according to Apartment List.