Families impacted by housing crisis building granny units

There is a growing push for affordable housing on the Central Coast and many people in the Santa Cruz area are turning to granny units to help their loved ones live in the area.

Santa Cruz County resident Janie Crabb told KION she and her husband decided to build an accessory dwelling unit about a year ago so their daughter and grandkids could move in with them.

“There is no possible way our family of our daughter, son-in-law, and three children could have stayed in Santa Cruz County had we not created and ADU for them. The ADU is for us, but they moved into our home,” said Janie Crabb.

Crabb said many people in her neighborhood have helped their adult children financially because people are simply being priced out of the area.

“My biggest concern is that only the rich and powerful are going to be able to stay in Santa Cruz County,” said Crabb.

That is part of the reason the City of Santa Cruz is encouraging more people to build ADUs.

“ADU development has quadrupled since we started changing the zoning and doing the program so people become aware of what ADUs can do,” explained Carol Berg, Housing and Community Development Manager for the City of Santa Cruz.

Berg said ADUs are a wonderful way to add housing units to an area without destroying neighborhoods.

Over the years the city has been at the forefront of this type of housing.

“Other communities look to Santa Cruz because we’re one of the leaders in the country for adus,” said Berg.

Now Janie and her husband are hoping Santa Cruz County will also take steps to make it easier and more affordable for homeowners to build these smaller units.

“I think people who build ADUs should be given priority. We’re not building mega mansions. This is a necessity, expansive huge second homes should not be the priority.”

Sarah Neuse, Planner of Sustainability and Special projects for Santa Cruz County, told KION that ADUs are a priority for the county.

Neuse said dealing with many different agencies depending on what district homeowners live in can slow things down, but they are working on a plan to speed the process up.

Their plan also comes as they implement changes from a new bill signed by Governor Brown to make ADUs less expensive to build in the state.