Could granny flats help ease California's housing crisis? Some advocates think so

Several years ago, Patsy Spitta of Altadena, Calif., wanted to help her daughter afford a home - something out of reach for many teachers like her daughter.

So Spitta, still working as a paralegal in her retirement years, had an idea.

She would build a backyard house and live there, allowing her daughter and grandson to leave their $2,500-a-month apartment and move into the two-bedroom house Spitta purchased three decades ago.

The only problem? A series of municipal regulations made the project infeasible.

"Then," Spitta said, "the rules changed."

Specifically, a series of state laws took effect last year that seek to ease California's housing shortage by eliminating local restrictions that made it difficult or impossible to build such small second homes, commonly known as granny flats.

Now, the 77-year-old grandmother is among a wave of Californians building second homes in their backyards, getting their previously illegal units permitted and converting their garages to rent to family or others.

"I got over