The City Council is about to gut a housing program in San Diego that works. The irony is this is not because of budget deficits — the program costs taxpayers nearly nothing — but because the program succeeded too well.
The city already lets homeowners build small homes — known as accessory dwelling units — in their backyards. The city’s ADU Home Density Bonus Program lets homeowners build more than normally allowed when they keep some units affordable for middle-income residents.
Since 2021, this approach has created hundreds of affordable homes in neighborhoods that previously excluded renters. Now, the city wants to add restrictions making these projects impossible.
The median home in San Diego already costs over $900,000, requiring an income of more than $200,000 to afford a median monthly mortgage payment over $6,000. And nearly half of all renters spend over 30% of their income on rent.
When housing consumes that much of one’s income, families cut back on healthcare, education, and retirement savings. Children change schools frequently, parents work multiple jobs, and the effects ripple through our entire community.
The bonus ADU program works because property owners use their own money and land to build housing, creating nearly 900 homes between 2021 and 2024, including 368 affordable homes exclusively for middle-class residents. In contrast, between 2010 and 2020, San Diego built just 37 homes that were affordable and legally reserved to middle-class households.
You can see the program’s success in Clairemont, where a graduate student enjoys a well-designed ADU with a dishwasher, laundry, and private yard. Ironically, opponents cited this very development at council meetings as “bad design,” yet the resident loves both the home and its location.
The bonus ADU program creates homes in opportunity-rich neighborhoods, allowing teachers to live near schools and nurses near hospitals, instead of enduring exhausting commutes. This new housing also helps local businesses function. When housing costs force workers to leave San Diego, employers struggle to fill positions. Restaurants close earlier, hospital wait times increase, and we lose the people that make up the backbone of our city.
Also, each ADU built near a job center means one less car clogging our freeways. Every morning, thousands of workers drive into San Diego from Riverside County and Tijuana because they can’t afford to live here. These long commutes create the traffic jams we all hate, generate pollution, and waste hours people could spend with their families.
Concerns about neighborhood impacts are understandable, but city data shows the worst of these fears are unfounded. Between 2021 and 2024, 99% of ADU projects included only 1 to 3 ADUs, not the massive outliers that opponents describe. And just to be clear, ADUs must follow the same height and setback rules as surrounding homes.
While some changes are reasonable, the current demands go too far. The proposal includes a new fee on ADUs, which potentially violates state law and invites costly litigation. Also, this fee would discourage property owners from building affordable housing during a severe shortage — essentially like taxing vegetable gardens during a famine.
Another change includes parking requirements that would increase building costs. More importantly, the parking would consume land that could house people and replace it with concrete that absorbs heat, prevents water absorption, and worsens flooding. Lastly, a change would restrict vast swathes of suburban San Diego cul-de-sacs from eligibility instead of reviewing each project on a case-by-case basis for any safety risks.
With San Diego facing a $250 million budget shortfall and needing thousands more affordable homes, we can’t abandon housing solutions that don’t require taxpayer subsidies. Contact your councilmember to protect this program from changes that would hurt middle-class families, increase traffic, and damage our economy.
Let’s keep San Diego open to everyone — not just those who arrived first.
Saad Asad is the communications and advocacy chair for the YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County.
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