SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--At a time when shelter is more starkly a matter of life and death than ever before, The Casita Coalition is charging ahead with efforts to level the playing field of housing options for all Californians. The new nonprofit was formed to improve housing choice and inclusion in all California neighborhoods through small housing forms (Accessory Dwelling Units/ADUs, granny flats, duplexes). Within just six months of receiving startup funding of $400,000 from The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, The Casita Coalition was awarded $200,000 from The James Irvine Foundation and $100,000 from The San Francisco Foundation in June. The grant funds will support the nonprofit’s vision of creating more inclusive communities and improving housing choices for all California families.
“With recent legislation removing barriers to accessory dwelling units and movement nationwide to embrace smaller forms of housing, we are at an inflection point for helping lower-income Californians by providing more choices in every neighborhood,” says Rajib Guha at The James Irvine Foundation. “We support the Casita Coalition’s vision to deliver on the potential of small homes as a solution to our state’s crushing housing, health, and economic crisis by creating affordable homes and jobs when we need them most.”
The Casita Coalition is a state-wide, one-stop comprehensive resource for homeowners, professionals, and policymakers as they navigate the process of adding small housing to existing communities. Recent ADU laws adopted since 2017 allow an accessory and a junior accessory dwelling in every single family lot, and more in unused spaces of multi-family properties. Just the 2017 law alone increased ADU permits by over 500 percent, according to UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation. Several regions of California are on track to add tens of thousands of ADUs in just a few years.
The Casita Coalition seeks to expand this progress and ensure equal access to these new laws regardless of race or income by providing in-depth, free access to information about law changes, financing, and process. Many of The Casita Coalition’s board and members played an instrumental role in designing recent ADU legislation.
“Our work up to this point has focused on creating more housing choices in more neighborhoods through ADUs,” says Casita Coalition president Denise Pinkston. “Recent law changes, which are easily used by wealthier homeowners with access to funds and expertise, must also be available to lower income owners to create a level playing field for all families. With foundation support, we can more widely improve inclusion and housing opportunity outcomes for families of all incomes and ages who may lack access to technical and financial tools.”
Funds from The James Irvine Foundation and The San Francisco Foundation will be directed towards specific initiatives that increase opportunities in low-income communities and communities of color. The Casita Coalition intends to work with partner organizations to fully understand and break down barriers that are preventing people from participating, as well as disseminate information around state-level ADU policy changes. In addition, The Casita Coalition will work to help all California families avail themselves of new housing law opportunities to support homeownership and the opportunity for generational wealth.
“If 30 percent of the nearly seven million single-family homes in California added an ADU, California could shelter over two million more households,” says Pinkston. “The Casita Coalition wants to work actively to ensure that lower income homeowners, seniors, and families of all backgrounds have access to the tools that can help respond to the housing, health, and economic crisis we all face. Thanks to our foundation partners, we have the means to do so.”
To learn more about the Casita Coalition, visit www.casitacoalition.org.