BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Since March, the City of Bakersfield has identified 38 unpermitted ADU structures, 24 of which have been inspected and determined to pose potential safety risks.
“The City wants to create more housing units for people to live here. Housing is obviously an issue both in Kern County, Bakersfield, and the state... This will help reduce that,” said Joe Conroy, the Public Information Officer for the City of Bakersfield.
An accessory dwelling unit (ADU) is a secondary housing unit on a single-family residential lot.
This includes attached ADUs, detached ADUs, and junior ADUs.
While ADUs provide affordable living options, they can be expensive to upkeep.
“A lot of the time, homeowners create these because… they want a relative to move in and have a place to live. But they may not always keep those up to code,” said Conroy.
According to the City, common violations include electrical code violations, inadequate heating, improper water heater installations, window and egress issues, missing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and a general lack of permits or inspections.
With the ADU forgivable loan program eligible single-family homeowners within Bakersfield could receive loans to bring unpermitted structures into compliance.
The program would require homeowners to commit to a five-year affordability covenant to rent to low-income individuals earning up to 60%of the area median income.
Both the forgivable loans and the program itself would be administered by a third-party contractor.
Funding for this program would come from the state’s Permanent Local Housing Allocation or PLHA fund.
The City committed to using $638,960.02 of these funds for ADUs– 80% of which would go towards rehabilitating and permitting illegal ADUs while the other 20% would go towards assisting in the development of new ADUs.
Next, an updated proposal will be brought to City Council at an undetermined date.
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