Crazy-high rent, record-low homeownership, and overcrowding
Amidst a city-wide need for more housing, the solution may lie right in our backyards
As the demand for housing in Los Angeles rises at steady pace, the supply of new homes is failing to catch up, leaving many homeowners to consider converting their extra space into an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU). Dana Cuff, A.UD professor and founding director of CityLAB, considers ADUs to be a logical part of the "postsuburban city". Consequently, CityLAB-UCLA and Kevin Daly Architects teamed up to design an environmentally friendly ADU prototype called the Backyard BI(h)OME.
"Things were going well for Ira Belgrade in 2009. The Los Angeleno and his wife of more than 13 years ran a successful talent-management company, and they'd recently converted their garage into a home office and rec room.Then, that April, Belgrade's wife died suddenly from complications related to Lyme disease. 'It threw my life into turmoil,' Belgrade, now 56, recently told Business Insider. He was left to raise the couple's 2-year-old son, Izzy, on his own.
Meanwhile, the company that Belgrade had run with his wife had collapsed. 'My business fell apart and I didn't want to lose this house,' he said."— Tanza Loudenback, Mar. 12, 2017
Read the full article at the Business Insider website.