Can tiny-home mortgages fix California’s housing crisis?

A startup that spun out of Airbnb to manufacture tiny homes at a factory in Mexico is launching a mortgage product it hopes will relieve California’s housing crisis.

Samara, which raised $41 million in 2023, is now getting into the financing business. It will start offering a mortgage that lets homeowners take equity out of their primary house to install backyard units, technically called accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.

The company is providing a financing and logistics shortcut for what is perhaps the central policy challenge facing both political parties: A housing crisis that is concentrated in cities like San Francisco and New York but driving unhappiness around the country.