Bright in Your Own Backyard 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. 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 should apply. If you aren’t ready to start now or are still saving up to build your ADU, we encourage you to subscribe for updates. We will continue to raise funds with the intention of supporting additional application rounds. 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 and has come to some decisions about moving forward and how you will finance it.

Your property must be residentially zoned and located within East Palo Alto, Redwood City, Pacifica, or an unincorporated area of San Mateo County. You must own your home and occupy it as your primary residence at the time of application and throughout the second unit construction process. Once your second unit is completed, you must occupy one unit (either the primary home or the second unit) and rent out the other to a bona fide tenant, which may be a family member or friend/acquaintance. You must commit to rent one unit (either the second unit or, if you choose to move to the second unit, your primary home) for a period of at least 3 years following completion of your second unit. If you stay in your primary home, the completed second unit must be rented at a rate that is affordable to tenants who earn less than the Area Median Income (AMI) in San Mateo County. As an example, monthly rent limits based on 2019 AMI are as follows: $2,822 for a studio unit, $3,022 for a 1-bedroom unit, and $3,626 for a 2-bedroom unit. You must have access to financial resources to fully finance the design and construction of your second unit. Bright in Your Own Backyard offers free feasibility and project management services but not construction capital. We hope to connect homeowners to financial resources to support construction costs in future iterations of the 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 what worked well for homeowners and what could be improved. Participating homeowners must agree to participate in our evaluation activities, such as filling out occasional surveys and engaging in one or more interviews about their 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.

We expect you to meet all eligibility criteria for the program (see above), including owner-occupancy, access to sufficient financial resources to support all design and construction costs without financial assistance from Bright in Your Own Backyard, and your commitment to participate in landlord training and program evaluation activities. 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 second unit project.

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: Bright in Your Own Backyard 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 Government Sponsored Communities, thanks to the support of our government partners and philanthropic funders. Bright in Your Own Backyard 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.

You are welcome to apply, however your project’s ultimate fit for Bright in Your Own Backyard’s free services may depend, in part, on your project’s specific circumstances.

South San Francisco's program supports small Mom & Pop landlords, so if you own a home in the jurisdiction that is tenant occupied you are welcome to apply.

Yes! We invite you to apply!

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 Bright in Your Own Backyard’s free services will depend, in part, how much work is needed on your primary home.

Yes! Many homeowners are building ADU's or JADU's to support family members. All that we ask is that you have a lease in place (whether you are charging rent or not) to demonstrate that the unit you are receiving free services for is operating as housing. We can't help you if you are simply building out additional work space.

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 that meets the requirements of the program (see below for details). If you would like assistance finding the right tenant, we can refer you to Bright in Your Own Backyard’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 Bright in Your Own Backyard 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.

No. There are no income requirements for either for you or your tenants.

Bright in Your Own Backyard does not offer (or require!) the use of pre-approved plans, however some jurisdictions are in the process of developing pre-approved plans. South San Francisco does offer pre-approved plans and we can help you determine if these are the right fit for your property and goals. 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.

We currently have additional funding to support up to 20 or 30 homeowners. We are actively seeking new homeowners for the program, so please apply while funding is available.

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, we work with homeowners all over the Bay Area on a fee-for service options, so please contact us if interested in learning more.

ADU advocates are actively seeking clarity on this important question! Please refer to the San Mateo County Assessor’s Office for their latest updates on ADUs.