Doesn't that speak more to the failures of LA to permit housing than to ADUs being a real solution?

It’s kinda both.

How many of the ADUs are standalones that cost $300k+, and how many are garage conversions that cost <$100k?

A lot are garage conversions, often in multifamily buildings. But there are a lot of standalone too

that's... not good

Don’t get me wrong we added ~1,000 of them here. But just think about that. We have 165,000 lots zoned SFZ where they would be built. We need more than 165,000 homes over the next 20 years and those 1,000 were built over 5 years. Its not enough, is my point

Silver buckshot, not silver bullet. It all adds up.

That's a new term to me -- I like it! I agree ADUs get a bit too much focus, but I suspect they play a sort of gateway drug role into bigger, more impactful reforms. I've also drawn a lot of lessons about what makes for successful reforms from ADU policymaking.

The little ecosystem of small local builders building ADUs can be leveraged into those same builders building 3-5 townhouses or a few small lot detached houses on infill lots.

I fear the NIMBYs use them to avoid change. Just an excuse to shove housing growth in the back alley by the trash can, keep the house in front, and don’t change the height of the neighborhood.

this is not my experience at all in 10+ years of working with this stuff; many of the most desirable plalces to live in this city are places where we *should not* be building density, but ADUs don't accelerate the problem so severely; NIMBYs don't like them because it increases parking scarcity

They're 100% used for that purpose, but I also don't see many advocates for ADUs who pack up and go home after getting them legalized. Like a lot of stuff in housing reform (and all policy and advocacy, I'm sure), it's important to speak to people at different stages in that journey.

Which isn't to say that everyone needs to be speaking to that audience -- it's not something I talk about much. But I'm glad we have people out there who are, and I try to see them as complementing those working on other, arguably higher-impact issues.

4k built since 2017, 850 in 2023 and 2024

So 500 a year… Again, build one on every SFZ lot and we only have 165,000 homes. Even at 1,000 a year we will go a century before filling it out Meanwhile, as sixplexes, you can get 165,000 homes with 33,000 applications and done in my lifetime

About that sure, but halfway that period through we changed the law to further encourage them, and we changed the law recently to encourage them further. We also allow 2 ADUs per lot, not 1. They're also a regional housing solution as the vast majority of single family lots are not in the city

No one policy is a silver bullet, but ADUs help. And they are especially good for sneaking more affordable housing into the most exclusionary neighborhoods.

Not even a bullet. More like a pellet.