{"id":255625,"date":"2026-04-07T12:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/255625\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T12:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:03:10","slug":"tiny-adu-houses-young-adult-children-struggling-to-pay-rent-in-l-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/255625\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny ADU houses young adult children struggling to pay rent in L.A."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Tina LaMonica and Warren Wellen purchased their South Pasadena Craftsman home in 2001, the one-car garage dated back to 1917, a time when people parked their narrow Ford Model T cars inside garages like this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bought it for $650,000,\u201d LaMonica says of the house. \u201cOf course, we could never afford to buy it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple moved in when their daughters, Sophie and Ruby Wellen, were little, and their tree-lined street was full of families with young kids who rode their scooters throughout the neighborhood. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe all grew up together and had block parties,\u201d says Sophie, 30. Now, she adds, \u201cThere are no new families moving in. No one left. Why would they?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tina <\/p>\n

Tina LaMonica and Warren Wellen sit on the patio with their daughter, Sophie Wellen, and their dog, Hazelnut, next to the 230-square-foot ADU where Sophie lived for two years. Her younger sister is now living in the ADU. <\/p>\n

Music was always a part of their home, Sophie says, thanks to her father, Warren, 65, who is both an attorney and a musician in the alternative rock band Brahms\u2019 Third Racket<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe plays everything,\u201d Sophie says. \u201cThroughout my entire childhood, he was always making music.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaMonica adds, \u201cIt can be disruptive.\u201d<\/p>\n

So in 2021, the couple pulled together money from different sources, including a line of credit, and turned the garage into a tiny 230-square-foot accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, for Warren to use as a music studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was intended to be a creative space, not a home,\u201d says LaMonica, 64, who is a commercial real estate broker. \u201cThe total cost was around $125,000, including permits, construction and all systems \u2014 a significant investment, but one that ended up serving our family in unexpected ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tina \"The <\/p>\n

The garage before, left, during, right, and after, below, construction. (Tina LaMonica) <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A few months after using his new music studio, Sophie, who had been in law school at the University of Michigan, moved back to Los Angeles after being away for 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wasn\u2019t working right away, and like many new grads, she had student debt and credit card debt from getting through school,\u201d says LaMonica. \u201cMarket rent in the Los Angeles area wasn\u2019t realistic, even with a job offer lined up. So, the studio became her first home. It gave her stability and independence during a major transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sophie, who describes her relationship with her parents as close, says the ADU was always meant to be temporary and she\u2019s grateful for it. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt 28, I didn\u2019t know where I wanted to live in L.A.,\u201d she says. \u201cI had only grown up in Pasadena, which is a small community. I felt lucky to be able to live in this little house in the back and explore the city to find the right place for me, instead of rushing to grab the first place I could, like so many of my associates had to do. It was right after the bar exam, and I was really stressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

The ADU features a Murphy bed and and a nice-sized kitchenette. <\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

The kitchenette has a compact air fryer-toaster oven from Our Place, and a slim, Classic retro-style refrigerator. <\/p>\n

After clerking for a judge in Washington, D.C., Sophie\u2019s boyfriend William Lang moved to Los Angeles and joined her and her dog in the ADU, bringing his two cats with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a full house,\u201d Sophie says, laughing. \u201cAnd yes, they were indoor cats! But we made it work. Finding a rental was hard. I couldn\u2019t really afford a nice apartment in L.A. I had to save up and wait until my boyfriend got here so we had two incomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise they felt at home. Although it\u2019s small, the unit is sunny and bright, with a pitched roof and a big picture window overlooking the lush backyard and swimming pool. (The blinds can be closed for privacy.) <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a Murphy bed that turns into a love seat when pulled down, which saves space, and classic black-and-white checkerboard porcelain tile from Mission Tile in South Pasadena that gives the living spaces a surprising sense of fun. The unit also has a bathroom with a shower, a closet and a storage nook above the bathroom. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

The ADU has room for a desk, flat-screen TV and comfy chair.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also room for a desk, a flat-screen TV on the wall and a comfortable chair. Not having a dining room isn\u2019t a problem because there\u2019s a welcoming patio just outside the French doors, with two chairs, a couch and a coffee table.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe backyard was our saving grace,\u201d says Sophie. \u201cMost of the time, William sat at the little table. It was cozy and nice. I got to be near my parents, and they got to know my partner better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ADU has a roomy kitchenette with white cabinets and countertops, a compact air fryer-toaster oven from Our Place, and a slim retro-style refrigerator from Unique. \u201cYou can bake, broil and fry with the small Wonder Oven,\u201d LaMonica says. \u201cRuby uses it all the time.\u201d There\u2019s also a mini-split system for heating and cooling, and if needed, a stackable washer and dryer can be added later.<\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

A patio area provides another living space steps outside the ADU. <\/p>\n

Soon after Sophie moved out, having lived in the back house for two years, her 27-year-old sister Ruby moved in. \u201cShe works in Torrance and can\u2019t afford to rent an apartment close to her job,\u201d her mother says. \u201cThe ADU gives her a chance to live affordably, stay safe and be near family, while building financial footing on her own terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaMonica is happy with the ADU, though she wishes they could have added a second floor, which the city of South Pasadena didn\u2019t allow at the time. <\/p>\n

She imagines a future in which one of her daughters lives in the main house, and she and her husband live in the ADU. \u201cI think an ADU is a great long-term solution,\u201d she says. \u201cIt keeps people from moving out of California<\/a>. With an ADU, at least you can keep your family on site.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some ways, the small ADU is more than just a solution for young people who can\u2019t afford to live in Los Angeles. A 2025 study <\/a>found that Los Angeles ranked second among the 50 largest U.S. metros for its share of working adults (ages 25 to 40) living with parents.<\/p>\n

Backyard homes can also help people connect with their community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nice thing about the ADU is that it can give you a sense of community that\u2019s hard to find right now because people are so isolated,\u201d says Sophie, who now rents a two-bedroom duplex in Hancock Park with Lang for $4,500 a month. \u201cWe\u2019re both lawyers at private law firms and doing well, but I still don\u2019t feel like I could have a child right now and give them the life I want. It\u2019s hard to make big life decisions in L.A., especially if you have student debt. It was really nice to have dinner with my parents every once in a while. They didn\u2019t want William and I to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

The bathroom inside the ADU. <\/p>\n

As Southern California gets more crowded and housing costs rise, young people have to look for options different from those their parents had when they were growing up.<\/p>\n

LaMonica says she and her husband never thought they would house both daughters in a converted garage. \u201cBut in a place like Los Angeles,\u201d she says, \u201cthe tiny ADU turned into a flexible and essential lifeline for our family, not just once but twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

And maybe one day, Warren will finally get his music studio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Tina LaMonica and Warren Wellen purchased their South Pasadena Craftsman home in 2001, the one-car garage dated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[43579,1431,1101,14913,1073,48,52,51,113184,47,50,49,63,113185,7087,592,113181,113183,315,8871,113182],"class_list":{"0":"post-255625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-adu","9":"tag-family","10":"tag-first-place","11":"tag-garage","12":"tag-home","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-la-headlines","15":"tag-la-news","16":"tag-law-school","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","19":"tag-los-angeles-news","20":"tag-los-angeles-times","21":"tag-music-studio","22":"tag-parent","23":"tag-people","24":"tag-sophie","25":"tag-south-pasadena-craftsman-home","26":"tag-time","27":"tag-tina-lamonica","28":"tag-warren-wellen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}