Santa Monica Modular Project Offers Hope for Affordable Housing in Pricy California Cities

A Santa Monica affordable housing project overcame the odds in a low-density, coastal California town, offering lessons for affordable housing developers across the state. 

According to reporting by Dan Walters for CalMatters, the 13-unit Berkeley Station apartment complex is made of modular units that were assembled in three days, with the entire construction process lasting nine months as compared with the typical 20 months. Despite its reduced costs, the project required a significant amount of public loans, costing $1 million per unit. As Walters explains, “The key to making modular construction more cost-efficient would be adopting it more fully, thus achieving economies of scale. That would involve changing some state laws, persuading housing lenders to be more accommodating and overcoming resistance from construction unions.”

Three state bills introduced by Assembly member Buffy Wicks would amend building codes to support modular buildings, prevent local governments from blocking modular housing in local codes, and make it easier to transport modular housing on state highways.