A new study warns that the burst in ADU development will not be enough to remedy Los Angeles’ affordable housing gap.
Accessory Dwelling Units are on the rise in Los Angeles County: in 2025, the county gained 10,200 new units in 2025, which accounted for 40% of the county’s new housing. The County has embraced ADUs as a potential solution to LAs housing gap: in recent years, the County made efforts to streamline the permitting process, and in 2026, it invested 3.8 million in 2026 to help residents create ADUs.
But the burst of ADUs has yet to significantly improve Los Angeles County’s housing crisis, Ryan Kushner writes for Smart Cities Dive. According to Neighborhood Data for Social Change, a project within the University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estate, the development of new homes in Los Angeles County dropped by 4% in 2025 compared to 2024. Additionally, while Los Angeles is mandated to build 812,000 new housing units between 2021 and 2029, only 125,400 have been built.
Jared Schachner, a researcher for the Lusk Center report and assistant professor of research at USC’s Price School of Public Policy, told the Los Angeles Daily News that while people should feel “encouraged by these initial signs of a supply expansion when it comes to ADUs … it’s not nearly enough to fill that gap in terms of what we need regionally.”
Read the full story, below.
Read the full story: ADUs had a banner year in LA County. It’s not enough to fill the housing gap, study says.
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