About Casita Coalition
We are a statewide 501c3 nonprofit with national impact, working to restore a mix of attainable rental and for-purchase homes to our neighborhoods. As a coalition working toward the vision you’ll read about on this page, we are stronger with more voices, more hands and hearts. We hope you’ll enjoy hearing a little about our story, then join us and add your voice!
Our Mission
Casita Coalition fosters resilient communities by championing diverse housing solutions that empower neighborhoods to thrive.
Through our core strategies of narrative work, systems change, capacity-building, policy reform, and technical assistance, we catalyze innovative housing solutions.
Our Story
Our origin story begins on a leafy afternoon in a Northern California neighborhood, where one of our founders rather suddenly realized that three of her near neighbors had small, separate structures in their backyards, and that some of them were apparently being lived in…Additional small homes were legal to build in her city, but subject to layers of review by neighbors and design committees, with costly fees and many uncertainties.
As a former planner and working developer frustrated with the extended timelines and complex financing of large scale affordable housing projects, she started to wonder…
What would happen if we made it easy for anyone to get a permit to build a cottage in an underutilized backyard, in every city and county across California? If we made it every homeowner’s right to do so, cut the costs and simplified the process?
Research revealed localized ADU movements in cities like Portland OR, Seattle WA and Vancouver, BC, where grassroots ADU advocates had formed local coalitions and pushed for citywide ordinances. But it hadn’t been done on a statewide scale.
In 2016, determined to make a difference in the worsening housing crisis, our founding board members pulled together an unprecedented coalition, co-authored two bills with pro-housing legislators, and the first effective state ADU law began its incremental journey to creating a new category of housing, to where we stand today, with more than 113,000 ADUs permitted across California.
Now the leading nonprofit voice for ADUs and middle housing, Casita Coalition continues to remove barriers to a more inclusive vision of housing, and collaboratively build the national movement.
Our Vision
We envision neighborhoods with enough homes and home types that allow for renters to achieve stability, prospective homeowners to be able to start their wealth building journey and for existing homeowners to be able to sustain homeownership. Over the next decade we aim to achieve our vision by removing barriers and growing an equitable middle housing ecosystem that restores economic vitality and mobility to our families and communities.
“Eliminating exclusionary land use regulation should be the civil rights issue of our time.”
Our Values
Inclusion
Undoing the harms of exclusionary zoning policy and practices allows us to preserve and create much-needed middle housing options
Collaboration
Engaging our coalition of housing advocates/policymakers, practitioners and beyond enables us to more effectively co-create solutions
Innovation
Adopting newer, cost-effective, and flexible housing solutions allows us to scale production of homes for people of all incomes
Transformation
Educating and mobilizing the wider ecosystem of housing finance, real estate, and development barriers that limit equitable access to homes will grow a diverse and robust housing delivery ecosystem
Our Core Roles
Narrative Work
Working with our broader network of stakeholders, we work to shift the narrative toward the shared value of abundant, attainable housing as a essential foundation for communities where all can thrive.
Systems Change
Restoring middle housing options requires recreating a more inclusive vision of neighborhood living, widespread adoption of new rules and regulations to deliver this vision, and regrowing a housing ecosystem able to deliver middle homes.
Capacity Building
By sharing best practices through our guidebooks, webinar series, learning circles and our education program, Casita Academy, we expand equitable access to quality information. We learn from and with our network of collaborative partners to bring the vision of attainable, stable housing within reach for everyone sooner.
Policy Reform
To restore middle housing to our neighborhoods, the first task is to address the first-generation barriers of exclusionary zoning, particularly regimes that ban all home options other than single detached houses. Statewide zoning reform creates uniform standards across all communities, ensuring that every community does its fair share to address the housing crisis. Only with scale can the broader systems of housing production, finance, and development be improved.
Technical Assistance
Casita Coalition’s board, staff, membership and expanded network of allies encompasses a broad cross-sector expertise pool. Our technical assistance and policy recommendations on ADU and middle housing topics are regularly sought by local, state and federal agencies as well as middle housing advocates outside California.
Our Coalition
We invite you join our cross-sector coalition of mission-aligned builders, designers, homeowners, lenders, researchers, planners, engineers, community based organizations and land trusts, real estate professionals, policymakers and innovators as we share solutions, connect and collaborate in pursuit of our vision.
