An accessory dwelling unit built by Marin County students was unveiled at a ribbon-cutting Tuesday in Novato, highlighting a model that addresses the local housing shortage, helps low-income seniors, and prepares high school students for degrees in business or work in the construction trades.
It was one component of ongoing efforts by the Rebuilding Together East Bay Network, a nonprofit affordable housing facilitator that has partnered with several Bay Area high schools, local leaders, community nonprofits and the Marin Housing Authority. Benefits to the public emerge at every stage of the process.
In the Novato case, an older adult received a source of passive income, a potential renter will receive an affordable tiny home in Marin County, enterprising students at the private Branson School received an education in home building and property development, and public school students at San Rafael High School earned career technical education credits and experience constructing the 160-square-foot ADU.
The unit now sits in the backyard of Novato resident Beth Reynolds, 71. She lost her job as a school accountant but still carries a mortgage on the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home where she has lived since 1987. She rents one room in the main house and plans to ask about $2,500 per month in rent for the ADU.
“I had no income when I applied for the program,” Reynolds said, referring to a publicly available affordable housing fund through the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
As a low-income homeowner, Reynolds bought the ADU for $135,000 with help from the department’s CalHome Owner-Occupied Rehabilitation Loan Program.
J.W. Frye, CEO of Rebuilding Together, said the state funds are distributed to local jurisdictions, which then allocate the money to qualifying projects. In this case, the funds came through the Marin Housing Authority. Two names are on the deed — Reynolds’ and the Marin Housing CalHome Program.
Reynolds will pay 3% interest for 20 years, with an option to defer payments on the principal. The Marin Housing Authority will recover only the interest on the loan — about $4,000, Frye said.
“You’re only paying maybe $250 a month in interest,” Reynolds said. “At the end of the 20-year period it matures, and you have to pay it off. You can either sell the property or not be around anymore. I’ll be 91 in 20 years, so let’s see what happens.”
“A lot of times homeowners that take this particular loan are mostly older adults,” said Frye. “The 20-year period is typically taking them through their lifetimes.”
Having a building addition also increases the value of the property, Frye said. Homeowners build equity while generating passive income.
The 160-square-foot studio dwelling is entirely electric. It comes with heating and cooling, a refrigerator, a microwave and an on-demand hot water heater. There is no oven and no stove, but there are outlets for both of those things and a hot plate in the kitchen.
Rebuilding Together also makes a 260-square-foot studio. Both models can be built off-site and delivered by truck and crane to the buyer, who can add outdoor living space.
“Both have wrap-around porches that can also be converted into a sunroom or have a retractable awning,” said Frye. “You can definitely double the living space.”
From one ADU to many
The ADU was one of six built by students at San Rafael High School over a three-year collaboration with Rebuilding Together. Antioch High School in Contra Costa County has built two units and the Branson School in Marin County has completed four units over two years. There are plans to open another program at Novato High School.
The organization also recently opened a factory in Oakland, called the Cypress Mandela Training Center, for young adults to build ADU studios and bigger family units for a cottage community in San Mateo.
At Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting event, Branson students introduced their own nonprofit Marin Youth for Housing, which includes housing information, civic engagement and advocacy for fair housing policies. It features much of the lessons they learned in a companion social policy course offered only at Branson called the Sociology of Housing.
“What’s unique about Branson is it has both in-class study and the hands-on building,” said Branson’s visual art teacher Eric Oldmixon, who designed the course. “It’s fully open source, so if any other schools want to pick it up, if they have a teacher that can pick up the sociology behind it, they can.”
