Our Approach to Afforable Housing
Light Touch Infill Development
By leveraging proven strategies from the for-profit sector and tapping into existing financing and investor networks, we deliver permanent affordable housing units—ranging from 30% to 80% AMI—into San Diego’s Flexible Housing Pool, in coordination with the Continuum of Care.
Our Light Touch Infill development model transforms single-family properties into multi-unit homes, typically 5 to 23 units, using base zoning and ADU regulations. These projects preserve neighborhood character and existing affordable housing while expanding the supply.
On average, projects are completed in 18 months at a cost of under $200,000 per unit—roughly one-third the cost of traditional 30+ unit developments. In many cases, units can begin delivering within just three months of project initiation. With 85% of San Diego zoned for single-family housing, this approach is critical to meeting the region’s urgent housing needs.
Rise Up proudly sponsors the Housing Disruptor Collaborative to address economic homelessness—a rapidly growing segment of the crisis affecting individuals and families with jobs or stable income who can no longer afford rent. These San Diegans don’t need permanent supportive housing; they need affordable, community-rooted homes with supportive services to regain independence.
Yet funding remains heavily focused on large-scale permanent supportive housing—an essential but expensive and time-consuming solution. Light Touch Infill Affordable Housing offers a faster, more cost-effective complement—and it’s time to fund it.
Visit housing-collab.org, to read more about Unlocking the Affordable Housing Triangle: A Scalable Neighborhood-Based Approach to Solving Economic Homelessness in San Diego.
Features:
- Quick development timelines
- Low cost solution, ~ $200,000 / unit
- Leverages existing base zoning & ADU Laws
- Provides for Enhanced Tenant Services
- All developments are self sustaining
- Provides solutions for low density and unincorporated areas of the county
- Allows for preservation of existing affordable housing
- Units are targeted to be delivered at 30% to 60% AMI
- Some units can be available as soon as 30 days from acquisition
- Developments are designed to integrate into existing neighborhood facade
- Allows for customized product creation