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San Diego issued nearly 9,700 home permits in 2023 but affordable units lag in high‑resource areas
Summary
City Planning reported 9,693 new home permits in 2023 — including roughly 1,909 ADUs and about 27% deed‑restricted affordable homes — while councilmembers and the IBA pressed for better tracking of inclusionary compliance and more affordable units in high‑resource neighborhoods.
City planners told the San Diego City Council on Tuesday that the city permitted 9,693 new homes in 2023 and outperformed peer cities per capita, but councilmembers and the Independent Budget Analyst said more work is needed to ensure affordable units reach higher‑resource neighborhoods.
"In total, 9,693 new homes were permitted in 2023," Grant Roddy, senior planner in the City Planning Department, told councilmembers as he presented the 2024 Annual Report on Homes, which summarizes 2023 permitting and program use. Roddy said about 27 percent of those units were deed‑restricted as affordable and that accessory dwelling units (ADUs) accounted for roughly 1,909 permits, about 20 percent of the total.
Why it matters: Despite a strong permitting year, planning staff and the IBA cautioned that San Diego still needs tens of thousands more permits to meet its RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) targets by 2029, and the distribution of affordable homes remains uneven: only about a quarter of permitted affordable units were in high and highest resource areas of the city.
IBA findings and public concerns: Amy Lee of the Independent Budget Analyst's office said the report offers improved transparency but leaves important gaps, notably a lack of data showing how many developers complied by building on‑site affordable units versus paying in‑lieu fees. "The report does not include how many development projects paid the inclusionary in‑lieu fee versus built affordable units," Lee said, and recommended improved cross‑department tracking to measure program effectiveness.
Public commenters raised questions about the Complete Communities program and ADU incentives. An advocate from Neighbors for Better San Diego warned that the Complete Communities approach can produce net small gains in affordable housing after demolition of existing units and urged changes to require additive replacement units.
Council discussion and next steps: Councilmembers praised progress on permitting but pressed staff on how to increase very low, low and moderate income housing in higher‑resource neighborhoods. Staff noted an upcoming affordable home development master plan and said they will continue improving data collection on inclusionary compliance and program outcomes. The department will incorporate committee and council feedback into the 2025 annual report.
