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 JADUs and we want to help make it easier!

Homeowners and small mom & pop landlords who do not own more than one single family home that they rent and want to add an ADU/JADU to, 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. This program currently has an active waitlist that we are working through each week until funding is no longer available which we anticipate will be in the spring of 2023.

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.

• The Program is only available to homeowners who own a single-family home in South San Francisco on a residentially zoned lot that can accommodate an ADU or a Junior ADU (JADU).

• You must own your home and live in the home that you are adding an ADU/JADU to or, if you are a small mom & pop landlord, you own no more than one single-family home that is rented where you want to add and ADU/JADU to.

• Once your ADU unit is completed, you must rent the unit or the main home to a bona fide tenant, which may be a family member, a friend/acquaintance or a community member. The goal of the program is to create more housing.

• You must have access to financial resources to fully finance the design and construction of your ADU. HelloADU offers free feasibility and project management services but not construction capital. We will support participants with understanding the different types of financing options that are available in the market and help evaluate which options may make the most sense to pursue.

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

• You are willing to comply with South San Francisco’s ADU ordinance requiring that homeowner’s building an ADU enter into certain deed restrictions affecting the ADU. ADU/JADU’s may not be rented for less than 30-days. ADU/JADU’s may not be sold separately from the primary residence. JADU’s (only) require that the owner lives onsite in the primary unit or the JADU unit

• Because this is a publicly funded program, an important aspect is our evaluation of what worked well for owners and what could be improved. Participating owners 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 Program. This critical feedback allows us to improve processes and (we hope!) showcase successful projects to inspire other owners to build an ADU/JADU on their property.

• 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 SSF's HelloADU program, 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 ADU/JADU project.

• We expect that you are ready to meet and engage with design and construction professionals to 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.

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

Yes! If you own no more than one signle family home in South San Francisco that you rent, you fit the program's definition of a small landlord.

Yes! We invite you to apply, but please note if you are seeking to add two units at the same time, we only have a limited number of free project management hours avaialbe for each homeowner so we will evaluate your project goals to determine if we are the right fit.

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 SSF's HelloADU free services will depend, in part, how much work is needed on your primary home. The project management support of HelloADU's free services is for the creation of new housing and not for remodeling of the main home.

Yes, so long as you have a bona fide lease with your family member (whether you are charging them rent or not) to provide evidence that the new unit is creating housing and is not simply extra 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. 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.

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.

HelloADU does not offer (or require!) the use of pre-approved plans, however South San Francisco has approved some pre-approved plans that may make sense for your project. We are happy to explore these with you and determine if the plans are feasible on your site. 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.

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.