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The Housing We’re Not Counting – and The Impact on Lake Tahoe

August 20, 2026

Traffic in Kings Beach, CA

The Housing We’re Not Counting

Some of the most important affordable housing in our region may be quietly slipping away, and once it does, any new housing we build stops adding and starts replacing.

Recently, we dug into property and county records in eastern Placer County, searching for older multi-family housing from duplexes to apartment buildings. We focused on properties held by the same owners for at least 10 years who don’t live on site. We found more than 90 that fit our criteria. Most were built in the 1960s or earlier, sit in the Tahoe Basin, and have not changed hands in decades.

What This Housing Is

These buildings are what we call NOAH, or Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing, meaning housing that is affordable to residents without any public subsidy or deed restriction. It was never built as affordable housing. It simply got old, stayed modest, and kept rents within reach.

Why It Is at Risk

National and state research shows housing like this is often lost when it changes hands, redeveloped or repriced to the market. We are seeing early signs of this trend here, with older buildings listed at prices based on their redevelopment potential rather than the rent they produce. Unlike most places, in the Tahoe Basin we cannot easily build replacements. The Basin holds only a few thousand small multi-family units with little room to add more. Every unit lost here tends to stay lost.

The Lake Tahoe Connection

There is an environmental angle too. Housing people close to where they work is part of what helps keep the region’s commuter traffic in check. Losing this close-to-work housing can potentially add more cars to the road. According to TRPA data, workers who commute into the basin drive almost twice the daily miles of a workers who live here, roughly 24 versus 13 miles. All that additional driving creates sediment that impacts lake clarity. The loss of multi-family rentals has the potential to exacerbate this issue. Every worker housed locally is a worker who does not have to commute, providing environmental benefits like:

  • Reduced Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) across the region.
  • Reduced road sediment running into Lake Tahoe.
  • Easing of traffic and emissions.

Our Solution: Active Preservation

At Housing Trust Tahoe, we are actively pursuing the acquisition of these multi-family units. Our strategy is simple:

  • Acquire older multi-family properties before they change hands.
  • Invest in the buildings, bringing them up to current standards.
  • Place a deed restriction so they stay affordable for residents for decades.

Preserving this housing keeps our community whole. It keeps a real mix of people living in Tahoe, from workers to retirees to families who have been here for generations.

How You Can Help

We cannot do this alone. If you own a home, a vacant lot, or a multi-family property on the North Shore, we want to talk to you.

As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, we can structure property acquisitions in various ways, including outright sales, partial donations, or full donations, that provide significant tax benefits to the seller.

Help us protect Tahoe’s environment and its workforce. Reach out to us today at info@tahoehousinghub.org to explore your options.

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Our First ADU Is Under Construction in Truckee!

July 16, 2026

Two years ago, we launched the ADU Accelerator with a simple idea – help homeowners add housing for our workforce and take the hardest parts off their plate. Now it’s real. The first ADU facilitated through the Tahoe Housing Hub’s ADU Accelerator program is under construction in Truckee and this fall it will become home to a local working family.

Currently under construction in the backyard of an existing home, the unit will be a 3-bedroom, 2-bath ADU, big enough for a family that lives and works right here in our community.

Homeowner with excavator in the background.
ADU Under Construction

Most people build an ADU exactly once. It’s a specialized undertaking that involves design, engineering, financing, permitting, and knowing which experts to bring in at which time. Our client, Leanna, knew she wanted to add a home for a local family. What she needed was a team that had walked this path many times. That’s where we come in. We worked alongside her from the start, weighing manufactured, modular, and stick-built options to find the right fit, then brought in the right professionals at each phase of design, engineering, planning, permitting, and construction. Now that construction is underway, we are still there and will continue with the project through lease-up of the unit.

Leanna has some advice for anyone interested in building an ADU.  “Without the Tahoe Housing Hub, this ADU might never have been built. I only wish I’d brought them in sooner. If you’re considering a project like this, my advice is get the Hub involved as early as you can. The earlier they’re at the table, the smoother everything goes.”

Building housing in the North Lake Tahoe-Truckee region is complex and can be expensive. It can mean hiring a team of experts, at significant cost, to plan, permit, and build a project. The ADU Accelerator provides that expertise from project inception to completion, all at no cost to the homeowner, thanks to generous grant funding from the North Tahoe Community Alliance’s TOT-TBID Dollars at Work and The Martis Fund.

Each homeowner enrolled receives up to $30,000 in expert services. That relatively small public investment is designed to unlock something much larger. Homeowners finance and build the units themselves, turning up to $30,000 in grant-funded support into a completed home worth many times that, up to a 25-fold return on every grant dollar, reinvested directly into local housing.

This first unit is just the start. We have projects in the planning stages throughout Truckee and North Lake Tahoe, in a range of unit types, sizes, bedroom counts, and levels of affordability. Every unit facilitated through the program will be allocated exclusively to local workforce housing. We’re also working on projects for church sites and other commercial properties designed for employee housing.

ADUs have a small footprint and offer a lower-cost, creative way to add infill workforce housing to our community. And with the ADU Accelerator, you don’t need to be a developer to build one. You can add value to your property, potentially generate passive income, and provide a much-needed home for a local worker, all at the same time.

If you’ve ever thought about it, reach out. Visit our website or send us an email at info@tahoehousinghub.org. We’re excited to talk with you about your project ideas.

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Voices for Housing Episode 5: Katie & Mike

June 12, 2026

Too many local families have faced the difficult choice of leaving Tahoe – the place that they love – to find steady affordable housing. Those who choose to stay often bounce from rental to rental, believing home ownership is an impossible dream. Down payment assistance programs like WHPP (Workforce Housing Preservation Program) offered through Placer County are providing a pathway to home ownership in the North Lake Tahoe region. In this episode of Voices for Housing we meet Katie and Mike. The WHPP program helped them make homeownership a reality. Click on the photo below to watch the full video.

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Housing 101: Decoding Affordable Housing What Do “Big A” and “Little a” Really Mean?

June 12, 2026

When you hear the term “affordable housing,” what comes to mind? For many, it conjures an image of government complexes. For others, it simply means finding a place that doesn’t eat up an entire paycheck. For the North Lake Tahoe Truckee community ‘affordable’ has two meanings and understanding the difference between ‘Big A’ and ‘little a’ housing can inform innovative housing ideas and solution.

The Housing Breakdown: “Big A” vs. “little a”

Housing experts divide affordability into two distinct buckets:

  • “Big A” Affordable Housing (subsidized): This housing is built or preserved using government subsidies, tax credits, and other financial incentives. Because public funds are involved, the units are regulated and reserved for households that qualify based on their income. How low income limits go depends on the program funding the unit.
  • “Little a” affordable housing: This is housing that’s attainable because of how it’s built — its smaller size, efficient construction, or modest design — not because of a subsidy. Often called “affordable by design” (think studios, micro-units, accessory dwelling units, and small cottages), these homes usually carry no income qualification; they’re affordable on the open market because they were built and priced to be.

Not all “little a” housing is built that way on purpose, though. A large share is naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) — older, unsubsidized homes that rent for less simply because of their age and condition. It’s market-rate like other “little a” housing, but affordable by circumstance rather than by design.

How “Big A” Eligibility Is Measured: Understanding AMI

In California, the income parameters for “Big A” housing are set using AMI — Area Median Income.

Each year the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates the median family income for every region, and the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) publishes the official state limits built from it, adjusted for household size. HCD sorts those limits into six income bands. In order, lowest to highest:

  • Acutely Low: up to 15% of AMI
  • Extremely Low: 16–30% of AMI
  • Very Low: 31–50% of AMI
  • Low: 51–80% of AMI
  • Median: 81–100% of AMI
  • Moderate: 101–120% of AMI

There’s no single income cutoff for “Big A” housing because eligibility depends on the program. The most common tool, federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, typically serves households up to 60% of AMI (and up to 80% with “income averaging”). But deed-restricted workforce housing, especially in resort regions like ours, often serves households between 80% and 120% of AMI and sometimes higher.

The Latest Local Updates: What Changed in 2026?

HCD released the official 2026 income limits, and the local numbers moved unevenly compared to the year before:

  • Placer & El Dorado Counties: a modest, steady increase.
  • Nevada County: a much larger jump — roughly 12.7% — in its median income figure.

Why the difference? AMI is an income estimate that HUD rebuilds each year from updated census data, so a jump like in Nevada County could come from several directions. Local incomes may have genuinely risen. The mix of residents may have shifted if lower-income households get priced out and move away. The median climbs even when no individual earns more. Or, since these are survey-based estimates, a smaller county’s figure can swing from year to year as the data refreshes. It could be any of these, or a combination.

The Bottom Line: Moving the Needle in Tahoe-Truckee

Affordability isn’t one-size-fits-all. Tracking these AMI shifts matters, because they’re the lines that decide who qualifies for subsidized “Big A” housing. But here’s the hopeful part: not every solution depends on that system.

“Big A” housing takes public capital, tax credits, income-qualified waitlists, and years to assemble. “little a,” affordable-by-design housing doesn’t. A homeowner can add an accessory dwelling unit and rent it to a local worker, attainable housing produced without a single tax-credit deal. That’s exactly what the Tahoe Housing Hub’s ADU Accelerator helps people do, alongside our work advocating for the codes and policies that let more of this housing get built. It’s how we move the needle now, while the bigger pieces come together.

To explore the data behind our local housing need and see exactly what kinds of housing our community is missing read the 2025 Tahoe-Truckee Regional Housing Needs Assessment.

2026 State Income Limits – Area Median Income (AMI) per Number of Persons in Household

Number of Persons in Household12345678
Adjustment Factor70%80%90%Base108%116%124%132%

Nevada County Area Median Income: $140,400

Income Category12345678
Acutely Low14,75016,85018,95021,05022,75024,40026,10027,800
Extremely Low26,30030,05033,80037,55040,60044,36050,04055,720
Very Low Income43,80050,05056,30062,55067,55072,60077,60082,600
Low Income70,05080,05090,050100,100108,100116,150124,100132,150
Median Income98,300112,300126,350140,400151,650162,850174,100185,350
Moderate Income117,950134,800151,650168,500182,000195,450208,950222,400

Placer County Area Median Income: $124,000

Income Category12345678
Acutely Low13,00014,90016,75018,60020,10021,60023,05024,550
Extremely Low27,60031,55035,50039,40042,60045,75050,04055,720
Very Low Income46,00052,60059,15065,70071,00076,25081,50086,750
Low Income73,60084,10094,600105,100113,550121,950130,350138,750
Median Income86,80099,200111,600124,000133,900143,850153,750163,700
Moderate Income104,150119,050133,900148,800160,700172,600184,500196,400

El Dorado County Area Median Income: $124,000

Income Category12345678
Acutely Low13,00014,90016,75018,60020,10021,60023,05024,550
Extremely Low27,60031,55035,50039,40042,60045,75050,04055,720
Very Low Income46,00052,60059,15065,70071,00076,25081,50086,750
Low Income73,60084,10094,600105,100113,550121,950130,350138,750
Median Income86,80099,200111,600124,000133,900143,850153,750163,700
Moderate Income104,150119,050133,900148,800160,700172,600184,500196,400
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ADU Accelerator: Lessons Learned

May 20, 2026

ADU Accelerator: Harder than Expected, Better than we’d Hoped

When the Tahoe Housing Hub launched our ADU Accelerator Pilot Program in the fall of 2024, the community response was incredible. We received over 100 inquiries and registered more than 80 interested participants. We were poised to help homeowners build backyard Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to house our local workforce.

What followed was nearly two years of hard lessons. As individual projects progressed, the realities of building in North Lake Tahoe came into clear focus — and we had to adapt. We found new products, built out our consultant team, and learned what it actually takes to move housing projects across the finish line in this region. It took time. But here we are.

The Reality of the Basin: High Costs and Complexities

Many of our participants quickly ran into a major roadblock: the extreme complexity and high cost of traditional construction in our region. For a significant number of property owners, the math simply didn’t add up, forcing them to put their ADU dreams on hold.

Determined to find a solution, we dove deep into researching alternative construction methods to cut costs and speed up build times. This search led us directly to factory-built housing, including prefabricated, modular, panelized, and Tiny Homes on Wheels (THOWs).

Exploring Factory-Built Solutions

Prefab and modular homes offer distinct advantages over traditional stick-built construction. Because most of the building happens inside a climate-controlled factory, weather delays disappear. Builders do not need to worry about working through our harsh winters; instead, delivery and installation can be scheduled seamlessly during the summer months.

As we worked with participants, it became clear that different situations called for different solutions. For some, factory-built or traditional construction was the right path. For others — particularly organizations with underutilized land who needed something simpler and faster to deploy — Tiny Homes on Wheels turned out to be the answer.

A Growing Portfolio: Stick-Built, Conversions, and Tiny Homes on Wheel

After months of rigorous research, we found a manufacturer capable of producing THOWs that meet our strict local snow load requirements at an affordable price point. With this new tool in hand, we expanded our outreach. We looked beyond individual homeowners to partner with:

  • Churches
  • Special districts
  • Local businesses
  • Organizations with underutilized land and a vital need for workforce housing

We now have seven organizational clients in the pipeline, on track to add up to 20 THOWs within the next year.

And that’s not all — traditional projects are moving forward too. We currently have two detached ADUs and six conversion units under construction this summer, proving that conventional ADU pathways remain viable in the North Tahoe/Truckee region.

There is No “One Size Fits All” Solution

The biggest lesson we learned from our pilot program is that there is no single way to build an ADU in the North Tahoe/Truckee region.

As the very first units facilitated by the ADU Accelerator Program hit the construction phase, we are incredibly excited for the future. Whether it is a tiny home on wheels, a garage conversion, or a traditional stick-built detached unit, the lessons we have learned have shown us exactly what is possible. We look forward to helping many more property owners become a tangible part of our local housing solution.

To learn more about the free technical services offered through our ADU Accelerator program – please reach out! You can contact us at info@tahoehousinghub.org or by visiting our website HERE.

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Voices for Housing Episode 4: Alison Part 2

May 20, 2026

This is part 2 of Alison’s story. After years of moving from one rental to another, she and her family reached a tipping point – move out of the area or stay and find a forever home. Alison shares more about the difficulty of first-time home ownership in the Tahoe region and how they made it work.

The Voices for Housing campaign is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the North Tahoe Community Alliance’s TOT-TBID Dollars at Work Program.

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Voices for Housing Episode 3: Alison Part 1

April 14, 2026

In this episode of Voices for Housing, we introduce you to Alison. Her work is critical to the environmental protection of Lake Tahoe. Alison explains how difficult it is to hire and retain quality workers simply because they cannot find affordable housing. This impacts not just the workers themselves, but the businesses who want to hire them. Building a thriving local economy is tied directly to having safe, dignified, affordable housing for local workers. This is Part 1 of Alison’s story.

The Voices for Housing campaign is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the North Tahoe Community Alliance’s TOT-TBID Dollars at Work Program.

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Voices for Housing Episode 2: Xander

March 18, 2026

This week we introduce you to Xander Guldman, a professional skier raised in Truckee who has come back after college to build his life here. For Xander, Tahoe/Truckee isn’t just where he skis. The mountains he grew up on, the community he’s built his life around, and the access to the outdoors make everything else in his life possible. But it all depends on the availability of affordable housing. Listen to Xander’s take on what makes this place so special and also so hard to hold onto.

The Voices for Housing campaign is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the North Tahoe Community Alliance’s TOT-TBID Dollars at Work Program.

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Voices for Housing Episode 1: Mary

February 23, 2026

We are thrilled to launch Voices for Housing, a new campaign dedicated to sharing Tahoe Truckee housing stories from our community. Over the next several months, we will introduce you to local residents from diverse personal and professional backgrounds who all have a unique housing story to share.

We start with Mary, a local artist and retiree who explains her deep connection to Kings Beach. Her story is a perfect example of why housing for all matters for the creative heart of our community.

The Voices for Housing campaign is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the North Tahoe Community Alliance’s TOT-TBID Dollars at Work Program.

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2026 Federal Housing Policy Review

January 27, 2026

Article by David Garcia, Terner Center for Housing Innovation, January 21, 2026

Link to article here.

After a surprising year of housing policy bipartisanship, lawmakers in Washington, DC are poised to continue pushing for housing supply and affordability solutions in 2026. At the same time, ongoing actions by the administration will continue to pose challenges to housing providers, developers, and the most housing insecure, while new and potentially forthcoming orders demonstrate a willingness to use executive power to address affordability concerns. As we head into an election year, there are several developments worth following in federal housing policy. This commentary previews the year ahead in Washington, DC.

Housing packages are poised to move forward in 2026.

By the end of 2025, both the House and Senate had advanced their own bipartisan bills to increase housing supply and promote affordability. And while the two packages (The ROAD to Housing Act in the Senate, and the Housing for the 21st Century Act in the House) have several unique and novel components, they also feature many overlapping and/or complementary features. Both packages have an opportunity to progress in the first half of this year before lawmakers turn their attention to the November election.

The ROAD to Housing Act, which passed out of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee unanimously and was nearly passed into law as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA),[1] contains several provisions that would have a positive impact on housing supply. These provisions include an expansion of the Rental Assistance Demonstration program (RAD) to preserve existing public housing,[2] reforms to existing federal loan products to support Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) financing,[3] and new programs leveraging existing federal dollars to promote more homebuilding in supply-constrained markets. As noted in a Terner Center commentary, the negotiation and advancement of ROAD to Housing represent a shift in how policymakers are approaching federal engagement on housing supply issues.

The Housing for the 21st Century Act advanced from the House Financial Services Committee on a vote of 50-to-1 just before the end of 2025. The Act includes provisions that are similar or identical to ROAD to Housing—for example, the Housing Supply Frameworks Act, reforms to the National Environmental Protection Act, and increases to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance for residential multifamily construction. However, the proposed House legislation also includes a number of unique ideas that would support increases in housing supply and affordability. These include changes to the application of Build America, Buy America requirements for new homes using HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funding,[4] requirements that cities report on their progress toward reducing barriers to housing production as part of federal funding reporting, and an examination of how building code reforms could reduce the cost and complexity of homebuilding.

Lawmakers have limited time to move each package forward before members turn their attention to their respective 2026 election campaigns. In the Senate, ROAD to Housing must now be brought back to a vote of the full chamber. The next step for the Housing for the 21st Century Act will be a vote on the floor of the full House. Both could be advanced in the earlier part of the year, setting up a conference committee between the two chambers to send legislation to the president’s desk for signature into law.

The budget deal is poised to maintain funding for critical housing programs.

Senate and House members released their FY 2026 budget agreement on Tuesday, which generally maintains and even increases some funding for affordable housing and infrastructure programs, while increasing resources to vulnerable residents—despite earlier indications that those programs would face steep reductions. For example, lawmakers have proposed that the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program and HOME both maintain the same funding levels as FY2025 after earlier facing nearly $1 billion less in last year’s budget proposal. In addition, $50 million is included for another round of the CDBG PRO HOME program, which provides support for localities pursuing land use and zoning reforms. Legislators have also proposed a funding increase over FY2025 levels for Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV), Project Based Rental Assistance, and Homeless Assistance Grants. Congress, which has been operating on a continuing resolution since November of last year, has until January 30 to vote on the full budget.

The budget deal also appears to include a solution for the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program, which provides rental assistance to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. EHV program funding was set to run out before the end of 2026. In the budget, $600 million is allocated to Tenant Protection Vouchers, which can be used to support current EHV holders. This is significant as our recent analysis notes that over 50,000 households nationwide are served through the program and would be at risk of losing that assistance.

The funding bill also includes language that would amend the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD’s) newly proposed guidelines for its largest homelessness program, the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program, which are currently suspended by a court order. HUD’s proposed funding criteria would have changed the CoC Program in many ways that would shift funding away from current permanent housing programs, potentially jeopardizing housing for 32,000 people in California. The bill would limit the extent to which HUD can make these shifts. It would also ensure funding continuity for current program awards that are scheduled to end prior to the next funding application process.

Executive Actions will continue to impact housing markets.

In addition to Congressional activity, the administration has signaled for several months that it has been working on Executive Actions to address housing supply and affordability, with President Trump saying in December that actions will include “some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history.”[5]

Statements from other administration officials signal that such actions could include the creation of new mortgage products and rule changes to allow for potential homebuyers to tap their 401(k) for down payments, as well as conditioning federal funds for states and cities on the adoption of policies to make it easier to build new homes. On January 20, President Trump also signed an Executive Order, which he alluded to in his remarks at the World Economic Summit, directing agencies to pursue initiatives aimed at curbing large institutional investor activity in the single-family home market. The Order would have the attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission review large acquisitions for anti-competitive practices and order other departments to promote sales to owner-occupants.

In addition, continued action on tariffs and immigration are likely to have a substantial impact on new supply. For example, multiple analyses by researchers and industry groups note that tariffs imposed or proposed in 2025 have the potential to increase the cost and uncertainty of new homebuilding. Increased deportation activity has also put a chill on residential construction labor supply, where immigrants comprise roughly a quarter of the labor force.[6] In California, more than two-thirds of California contractors cite skilled worker shortages as their top concern, and the state has faced a net loss of construction workers just in the last year.[7]

This year is likely to be consequential for housing affordability.

Polling going into this election year suggests that housing affordability will continue to be a consequential issue, and during campaign season, members of both parties are likely to want to showcase their efforts to advance meaningful legislation. Moreover, success on housing this year could set the table for even greater reforms in the next Congress and beyond. But for this momentum to continue into the next Congress, maintaining bipartisan support for housing solutions during what is likely to be a highly polarizing campaign will be critical.

Endnotes

[1] Lawmakers in Congress will often leverage “must-pass” bills to advance other priorities that are not relevant to the “must-pass” legislative vehicle. The NDAA is considered a “must-pass” bill to ensure funding for national defense.

[2] The RAD program allows public housing providers to rehabilitate existing units by leveraging private debt. We explored the potential of this program in a 2023 paper.

[3] A 2022 Terner Center paper explored the creation of loan products through existing federal programs specifically to provide homeowners with a broader selection of financing options.

[4] The Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) requires that all iron and steel, construction materials, and manufactured products used in federally funded infrastructure projects are produced in the United States. Affordable housing organizations have raised concerns that requiring affordable housing projects to adhere to BABA raises the cost of development.

[5] Samuels, B., & Manchester, J. (17 December, 2025). “Trump touts ‘warrior dividend’ checks, housing reform in address to nation.” The Hill. Retrieved from: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5654365-trump-primetime-address-housing-checks/

[6] National Association of Homebuilders. Concentration of Immigration in Construction Trades. Retrieved from: https://www.nahb.org/advocacy/industry-issues/labor-and-employment/immigration-reform-is-key-to-building-a-skilled-workforce/concentration-of-immigration-in-construction-trades

[7] The Home Builders Institute (HBI) Construction Labor Market Report. (2025). Home Builders Institute. https://hbi.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Fall-2025-Final-Construction-Labor-Market-Report-Update.pdf; California Construction Workforce Trends 2025. (2025). ABLEMKR. https://ablemkr.com/california-construction-workforce-trends-2025/

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