HelloADU will offer participating homeowners free ADU feasibility and project management services from nonprofit organization Hello Housing. Our goal is to make it easier for homeowners to navigate the complex and often confusing process of designing, financing, permitting, constructing and leasing an ADU or JADU. We believe that partnering with homeowners like you to create new housing units in your community can help move the needle on addressing the Bay Area’s housing crisis.

Simply put, we want more people to build ADUs and we want to help make it easier!

Homeowners who meet the basic eligibility criteria and have decided that they want to build an ADU or JADU should apply. If you aren’t ready to start now or are still saving up to build your ADU/JADU, we encourage you to subscribe for updates. We hope to see the initial pilot expand County-wide. However, for now, we have a limited number of spots and need to prioritize households that are ready to act by committing their time and resources now.

For starters, you might be ready if your household has had conversations about building an ADU or JADU and has come to some decisions about moving forward and how you will finance it.

• Your property must be residentially zoned and located within the Unincorporated Areas of Alameda County. This includes Ashland, Cherryland, Castro Valley, Castlewood, Fairview, Happy Valley, Hillcrest Knolls, Sunol and San Lorenzo as well as the unincorporated areas of Hayward, South Livermore and East Pleasanton.

• You must own your home and occupy it as your primary residence at the time of application and throughout the ADU/JADU construction process.

• Once your ADU/JADU is completed, you must occupy one unit (either the primary home or the new ADU/JADU) and rent out the other to a bona fide tenant, which may be a family member, a friend/acquaintance or someone brand new to you.

• You must commit to rent one unit (either the ADU/JADU or, if you choose to move to the ADU/JADU, your primary home) for a period of at least 3 years following completion of your new unit. If you stay in your primary home, the completed ADU/JADU must be rented at a rate that is affordable to tenants who earn less than the Area Median Income in Alameda County (see below for details).

• You must have access to financial resources to fully finance the design and construction of your ADU/JADU. Bright in Your Own Backyard offers free feasibility and project management services but not design or construction capital. We hope to connect homeowners to financial resources to support construction costs in future iterations of Bright in Your Own Backyard.

• You must agree to participate in Hello Housing-approved landlord and fair housing training prior to entering into a lease with a tenant.

• Because this is a pilot program, an important aspect is our evaluation of what worked well for homeowners and what could be improved. You must agree to participate in our evaluation activities, such as filling out occasional surveys and engaging in interviews about your experience in the pilot. Homeowner feedback allows us to improve processes and (we hope!) showcase successful projects to inspire other homeowners to build an ADU on their property.

There are not income limits for you to participate in Alameda County HelloADU program. However, Participants in the Program must be willing to rent the new ADU or JADU for a period of no less than 3 years. Units can be rented to a family member, a friend, or a community member as long as there is a bona fide lease in place. Alternatively, applicants can move into the new unit and rent out the main home. You are not required to charge rent for the unit (especially if you plan to support a family member), however if you do plan to charge rent, the newly created ADU or JADU will be subject to a rent limit based on the Area Median Income rent limits used by Alameda County Housing and Community Development Department, which are typically adjusted on an annual basis. As an example, rent limits for 2023 are as follows: $2,100 for a studio unit, $2,200 for a 1-bedroom unit, and $2,600 for a 2-bedroom unit.)

• We expect you to meet all eligibility criteria for the program (see above) including access to sufficient financial resources to support all design and construction costs without financial assistance from Alameda County's HelloADU program.

• We expect you to be ready to start moving your project forward after entering into a Participation Agreement for project management services.

• We expect you to be available to meet with your project team on occasion during the business hours Monday through Friday.

• We expect you to be willing and able to get all household members and decision-makers on the same page. Your family or household does not need to be in total agreement about your goals when you apply, but we will need you to get there before we can help you proceed with the design and construction phases of your ADU/JADU project.

• We expect you to meet with and engage with third-party professionals who will help move your project forward.

It will depend on the type of project you are planning to build. For example, a detached 2-bedroom ADU will cost significantly more than a conversion of an existing bedroom and bathroom into a Junior ADU. Once we have completed a Remote Assessment and phone interview and have a better understanding of your project scope, we will share a ballpark number. Acceptable documentation of financial capacity includes financial account statements, loan pre-approval letters or loan documents from lenders, and gift letters. If you do not have a financial plan in place, we can help you navigate various financial options with lenders that may best fit your needs.

Great question! Here are some features that make our program special:

• HelloADU helps you bring everything you need under one trusted roof! Some firms do design-build, but they may not be able to help you determine what your family can afford, refer you to a competitor, or help you understand what landlord responsibilities apply in your city.

• As a nonprofit, we are able to offer quality project management services, but at no cost to selected homeowners in our program, thanks to the support of our government partners and philanthropic funders.

• HelloADU is administered by Hello Housing, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit housing organization, which means we don’t have a financial conflict of interest nor profit motive in working with you. Our goal is to help you realize your ADU vision, not to push you into a product or service we are selling or promoting.

Yes! You are welcome to apply, however your project’s ultimate fit for Alameda County's HelloADU’s free services may depend, in part, on your project’s specific circumstances.

Yes! We invite you to apply! Depending on the prefab builder you choose, our services may be modified to match their process.

You are welcome to apply, however your project’s fit for Alameda County's HelloADU’s free services will depend, in part, on how much work is needed on your primary home. The program's free services are designed to support homeowners to create more housing on existing properties and not for supporting the remodeling needs of the existing home.

Yes, so long as you have a bona fide lease with your family member that meets the requirements of the program.

We encourage you to apply so that we can help you determine if it is the right fit for our services. Legalizing units can be tricky and we want to make sure that the project can be legalized and that you are ready for the work that may be involved to bring your informal unit up to current building codes.

Yes! Participating homeowners will select their own tenant. If you know someone you would like to rent to, you are welcome to do so, so long as you enter into a lease with the tenant. If you would like assistance finding the right tenant, we can refer you to HelloADU's tenant matchmaking partners. It is important to note that in advertising your unit, screening applicants, and selecting a tenant, you must comply with all applicable fair housing laws. Mandatory landlord training for HelloADU participants will help ensure that you understand these laws and other landlord responsibilities.

Yes, you will be the one to choose the product type and design/construction professionals for your project. We are here to help guide you through that selection process, helping you understand various product types (from pre-fabricated/modular to on-site panelized construction to traditional “stick-build” construction) and connecting you to a list of experienced professionals. Once we have plans in hand, we will perform value engineering (working with you to fit your dream project into your reality budget), take your project out to bid, review bids for cost reasonableness, help you understand variability and discrepancies in bids, and provide a standard homeowner-contractor agreement that protects your interests.

HelloADU does not offer (or require!) the use of pre-approved plans. However many jurisdictions are in the process of developing pre-approved plans. As these plans become available and if the County decides to review and pre-approve specific plans, we will notify you in case this makes sense for your project. You are also welcome to choose an off-the-shelf pre-fab or modular product and we will adapt our services to make sense with this product type.

Making smart referrals would require us to have some familiarity with your project and your specific needs, and as a nonprofit organization we do not have the resources to do the necessary homework for free. However, Hello Housing also provides feasibility and project management services at a reasonable hourly rate. Please contact us if interested in learning more.