backyard ADUs – After Oregon’s Almeda Fire worsened an already tight rental market, some families looked to a backyard solution: accessory dwelling units. In California and beyond, reforms have made ADUs faster and cheaper to build, allowing more housing without adding new ne
When the Almeda Fire tore through the Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon in 2020. it didn’t just destroy homes—it intensified a housing crunch that was already pressing on renters.. In the Medford Estates neighborhood in Medford. Oregon. thousands of homes were lost. leaving displaced families to compete for fewer places to live.
For Jacob Fry and his wife, Elize, the flames spared their own home, but the need stayed close to home.. They said they felt compelled to help. so they took out a loan to build two small rental units in their own yard.. Jacob described the motivation as community need rather than profit: “It was more about the community and needing infill housing for people that had been displaced; [that] really was the main thing.”
The units are called ADUs—Accessory Dwelling Units—secondary homes on the same property as a main residence. often built in backyards.. Over time. lawmakers have made sweeping changes that. in theory. make ADUs faster. cheaper. and easier to add in places where they previously faced hurdles.. ADUs have also been known as “granny flats, carriage houses, or mother-in-law suites.”
In California, the rules now allow multiple modest units on a single-family lot.. The restrictions are also clear: they can’t be used as short-term rentals, which means no Airbnbs.. The law permits long-term tenants only. and advocates say that framework has helped set off a growing wave of ADU construction.
Dana Cuff, a professor of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA, helped push for the original legislation.. She said. “It’s had more impact than any other housing law in the last 10. 12 years.” She also pointed to the pace of construction. saying there are “82. 000 building permits right now in California.” Cuff now lives in an ADU she built in what used to be her own backyard.. She recalled that the space used to include “a half-dead citrus tree probably right here. and a treehouse for our kids.” She said. “You know. we did lose something in building the house.. But we gained a lot more.”
For Cuff, the appeal is partly practical and partly environmental.. “Sprawl has hit the wall now. ” she said. adding that pushing development further outward doesn’t work the way it used to.. “So then. I mean. the beauty of that. from an environmental and a housing and an urban perspective. is that then you start building back in.”
Back in Oregon, the Frys built their ADUs to fit the shape of their property.. They described renting the original home to mostly young tenants who are just starting out. while living with two ADUs designed to work on their long. skinny lot.. Their approach, Jacob said, was about affordability.. “We want things to be affordable so that we can get people in that might not otherwise get a decent situation with a decent landlord.”
Elize Fry added that the residents living in their units are people starting families.. She said, “Both the tenants that live there now are, like, young newlyweds.. They’re in their early 20s and they both just got married.” She and Jacob emphasized the same tension common to smaller housing: it’s compact. but they believe it can feel livable if it’s planned well.
A tenant experience described by Kaetriauna Bowser-Smith. along with Jared Weber and their nine-month-old daughter. Miller. puts that question in everyday terms.. They’ve been living in an ADU for nearly three years in a space described as 400 square feet.. Bowser-Smith said they tried looking elsewhere. but “there’s nothing comparable to what we have.” She added that if not for the ADU option. “they’d probably still be living at their parents’ houses.”
Not everyone is building ADUs to rent them out.. Along the coast in Los Angeles, Mona Field, 72, turned her garage into a two-bedroom ADU.. She said the garage was being used for “everybody and their brother’s storage. ” and she described the decision as a personal choice rather than a rental business.. “I knew I did not want to stay aging in a big house by myself,” she said.. “I don’t feel cramped at all.. I feel like I have a lot of space for one old lady!”
Field said the arrangement also allowed her to support family needs.. She described the ADU as her retirement home and said it let her offer her main house as affordable housing for her daughter and that daughter’s family: Nadine Levyfield. her husband Charlie Marshak. and their two small kids.. But even with separate spaces, the question of daily life lingered.
Marshak said. “Even though we had separate spaces. would we be able to. you know. cohabitate on the same property in a functional way?” He and Levyfield said the answer has been yes.. “We have regular standing dinners with my mom and the kids,” Levyfield said.. She added that her mom helps with child care and that family time has become routine: “We spend time together.. We say, ‘Hey, do you wanna join us for a stroller walk?’ It’s amazing.. We’re so grateful.”
The debate over ADUs doesn’t stop at family dynamics.. Critics argue that building in backyards strains practical systems designed for single-family homes, citing parking, sewer, and garbage.. Still. the housing logic has been powerful for people who have watched markets tighten in the aftermath of disasters and displacement.
For the Frys, the early payoff was personal as well as financial.. Jacob compared skepticism to a joke about testing a marriage. saying. “They say if you want to test your marriage. buy IKEA furniture. ” before replying. “Built an ADU!” He said the marriage survived. and so did the rental income from the ADUs.. He also said the buildings have “almost paid for themselves,” even though they continue to rent “well below market value.”
The pattern is close to the same across the examples: each ADU begins with a specific need—displacement after the Almeda Fire, affordability for young tenants, a retirement plan that doesn’t feel lonely—while the reforms aim to make building back in the available space the simpler route.
It used to be that the suburb’s ideal meant a white picket fence and a two-car garage.. But the pressure on housing has shifted priorities.. “Today. people need housing more than cars. ” one resident said in the spirit of that change. adding that backyard barbecues might not require “an entire backyard.” The story presented here is that every square foot matters more now. and ADUs are being pitched as a way to offer a different lifestyle across different ages.
As professor Dana Cuff put it, “We have to start imagining new ways of living together well.”
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