Affordable housing or a lack thereof, is a major issue in California, including here in San Diego. NBC 7’s Jeanette Quezada spoke with residents who say the city’s approach to addressing the crisis is making the problem worse.
The San Diego City Council will meet this week to discuss if they will roll back or eliminate a program that allows property owners to build additional apartments, known as ADUs, in their backyards.
The Bonus Accessing Dwelling Unit, was designed as part of the city’s effort to address the growing housing crisis. It allows property owners to build an unlimited number of bonus backyard apartments, also known as ADUs.
Becca Batista and her husband bought their home in Encanto eight years ago and they love living here.
“Encanto is like the dream we were able to realize as a young couple,” Batista said. “We couldn’t afford elsewhere, but we loved the idea of having a couple of chickens and having a backyard garden, and having that space of that peace and quiet,” she said.
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The couple worries the charm that drew them to buy a home in this quiet neighborhood may soon be gone because of the city’s ADU program.
“It’s like every turn that you make, we’re finding properties that have sold to these developers and are going to be Bonus ADU Apartment complexes,” Batista said.
The program was designed as part of the city’s effort to address the growing housing crisis. It allows property owners to build an unlimited number of bonus backyard apartments, also known as ADUs.
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Becca said just next door to her, there are plans to build 43 ADUs, where a vacant single-family home now stands.
When they pulled the permits on that lot, they found it was owned by a Limited Partnership Company.
With chants and posters, Batista along with several others protested outside the Clairemont home of the attorney listed on a city website as the owner of the property next to her home.
Batista showed NBC 7 a letter she said his law firm sent to city council stating in part, “The program is a key contributing factor to San Diego’s pro-housing designation, and pausing, cancelling, hindering, or revoking it would put that designation and the funding opportunities it provides at risk.”
NBC 7 tried speaking to the property owner, but when we rang his doorbell, no one answered.
According to data from the San Diego Housing Commission, 787 ADUs were approved last year, compared to 34 in 2021, when the program first launched.
Saige Gonzales Walding also lives in Encanto.
She worries the unlimited ADUs will make her neighborhood more crowded, create parking problems, and damage the look of the neighborhood.
Since learning about one project, she started digging a little deeper.
“We’ve found 69 different properties, 714 units all around us,” Gonzales said.
She said she wants the city to end the bonus ADU program and to stop all the projects that are currently in the pipeline.
A sentiment echoed by Batista.
“We feel that’s taking away the opportunity for a young family to grow generational wealth and really build people up in a way that my husband and I have been able to do,” Batista said.
On Tuesday, San Diego is set to discuss what will happen next with the program.
We also reached out to Council Member Foster’s office for comment and are awaiting a response.
