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B.C. rest areas, park-and-rides fill with people who can't afford a home


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https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-rest-areas-park-and-rides-fill-with-people-who-cant-afford-a-home

“The driver is housing,” said Jesse Wegenast, coordinator of the city’s homeless count. “It used to be that to end up homeless, people had a combination of vulnerabilities — mental health, addiction, childhood trauma. Now, they just don’t have enough money.”

This is starting to become a major problem across canada. First there isn't enough homes for people so they start to live like this.
Then this type of camp or 'mobile village' will get too numerous and big to be safe and there will be clamp downs - and then where do people go?  And when there's no where to go what's going to happen?

People here have said that the gov't wont let it get to the point of violence - but we're getting awfully close.

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You know how it works out though. The very fact they own an RV they can live in on the side of the road means they won't qualify to get housing. The usual Catch22.

You must sell the RV and live off the money you. Then when you're absolutely penniless you can reapply.

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7 hours ago, CdnFox said:

People here have said that the gov't wont let it get to the point of violence - but we're getting awfully close.

It'll be so much better when Mr Poilievre is in charge and crackin' down and gettin' tough.

It'll be like 1957 and everything will be right as rain in no time. ?

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1 hour ago, herbie said:

You know how it works out though. The very fact they own an RV they can live in on the side of the road means they won't qualify to get housing. The usual Catch22.

You must sell the RV and live off the money you. Then when you're absolutely penniless you can reapply.

We need to put nimbyism in its place so people can rent a space for RV owners who need a place to call home.

You can bet most of the people blaming homelessness on wokism or some such thing comprise the bulk of the nimbys who will scream bloody blue murder when nimby reforms come to their neighbourhoods.

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27 minutes ago, eyeball said:

It'll be so much better when Mr Poilievre is in charge and crackin' down and gettin' tough.

It'll be like 1957 and everything will be right as rain in no time. ?

well not no time i'm afraid. 

Trudeau has done generational damage to the country.  He DOUBLED the debt. Nobody else has ever crippled the country that bad.  He's broken all of our major gov't institutions - even taking a flight or getting a passport is a major ordeal.

He's created divisions between so many people that canada will never be the same again.  And  a  lot of people are dead because of his laws - they won't be coming back no matter who gets elected.

And the housing shortage is going to be severe for years.  Nothing can change that.

But PP can start to undo the damage. He'll get two terms most likely and that will be a good start.

And undoing all those terrible laws can happen pretty quickly. 

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20 minutes ago, eyeball said:

We need to put nimbyism in its place so people can rent a space for RV owners who need a place to call home.

You can bet most of the people blaming homelessness on wokism or some such thing comprise the bulk of the nimbys who will scream bloody blue murder when nimby reforms come to their neighbourhoods.

The problem is that rv's and such were never intended to be occupied all year round and represent a fire hazard if you do.  There's plenty of RV parks in bc for example but you can't stay there more than 6 months out of the year at a time for that very reason.

 Honestly i think RV parks on gov't land would be a fast and economical way to take a serious bite out of the problem.  You might not be able to afford a home but you can afford a 50 thousand dollar rv or motor home or 5th wheel or the like with monthly payments and the small pad fee it would cost.  But gov'ts don't allow it because of the potential hazard.

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17 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

The problem is that rv's and such were never intended to be occupied all year round and represent a fire hazard if you do.  There's plenty of RV parks in bc for example but you can't stay there more than 6 months out of the year at a time for that very reason.

Yeah crying about danger is the fear nimbys exploit everywhere. They use it to the same effect when disallowing secondary suites or increased density in whatever shape and form it comes in.

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Honestly i think RV parks on gov't land would be a fast and economical way to take a serious bite out of the problem.  You might not be able to afford a home but you can afford a 50 thousand dollar rv or motor home or 5th wheel or the like with monthly payments and the small pad fee it would cost. 

I think an RV parked on someone's private property would help many people economically while taking a bite out of the problem.  It might allow them time and a place perhaps to wait until their landlord can build a suite or perhaps subdivide their property to sell to them.

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But gov'ts don't allow it because of the potential hazard.

Local govt's don't allow it because they're afraid of nimbys. Unfortunately it looks like we'll have no choice but to get bigger governments to force nimby reforms so everyone can get on with coming up with even more creative options.

Let me guess you're expecting PP will merely urge homeless people to move into government run camps?

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31 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Yeah crying about danger is the fear nimbys exploit everywhere. They use it to the same effect when disallowing secondary suites or increased density in whatever shape and form it comes in.

True, well not secondary suites as much but otherwise sure.

However - it's not without merit. Look at that fire  and explosion that damaged the nearby building at the latest vancouver tent city. And i hear the smell and feces was actually pretty horrible.

Seems like there must be some sort of middle ground possible though.

31 minutes ago, eyeball said:

I think an RV parked on someone's private property would help many people economically while taking a bite out of the problem.  It might allow them time and a place perhaps to wait until their landlord can build a suite or perhaps subdivide their property to sell to them.

Well you and i have our differences but i totally agree with you here. In fact - funny story but that's kind of how i wound up with my tiny home, which is built on a torn down rv frame. A friend desperately needed somewhere for his family and him and we wound up building it pretty fast and they lived in it for a year. Now it's my home office.

but  i know that even here nobody's supposed to be living in a trailer that long. We were lucky nobody reported it or the like.

31 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Local govt's don't allow it because they're afraid of nimbys. Unfortunately it looks like we'll have no choice but to get bigger governments to force nimby reforms so everyone can get on with coming up with even more creative options.

Well there are legit concerns - but i feel like they must have solutions if anyone put in the effort to find them.

31 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Let me guess you're expecting PP will merely urge homeless people to move into government run camps?

oh don't be stupid.

(i ain't paying for a camp out of MY tax dollars , we'll just run 'em off a cliff or something.... )

 

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10 hours ago, CdnFox said:

True, well not secondary suites as much but otherwise sure.

However - it's not without merit. Look at that fire  and explosion that damaged the nearby building at the latest vancouver tent city. And i hear the smell and feces was actually pretty horrible.

Seems like there must be some sort of middle ground possible though.

The middle ground will be pretty narrow if a secondary suite or a $50000 RV owner can be associated with a tent city dweller on Vancouver's East Hasting's Street.

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Well you and i have our differences but i totally agree with you here. In fact - funny story but that's kind of how i wound up with my tiny home, which is built on a torn down rv frame. A friend desperately needed somewhere for his family and him and we wound up building it pretty fast and they lived in it for a year. Now it's my home office.

but  i know that even here nobody's supposed to be living in a trailer that long. We were lucky nobody reported it or the like.

Sounds much like renting the trailer we started in while I built the house across the street. Got moved in two weeks before my wife had our 2nd child.

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Well there are legit concerns - but i feel like they must have solutions if anyone put in the effort to find them.

Nimby reform should be a no-brainer for anyone committed to having fewer regulations and not having to worry people from the government might respond to complaints that could make you homeless - you've been in these shoes. 

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oh don't be stupid.

(i ain't paying for a camp out of MY tax dollars , we'll just run 'em off a cliff or something.... )

I see no reason to believe anti-nimby legislation will cost you anything.

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I drive by Cole Road and Lonzo all the time. Rest areas are supposed to be just that, mainly for long distance truck drivers who have maximum duty days and need a place to park and sleep. Now they are finding rest areas full of squatters and there is nowhere for for them. Lonzo is a pig sty, it was cleaned up once but soon returned to its present state. The problem with all these places is they are on  provincial property and city bylaws have no authority. 

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A tale of the happy twins (not an allegory; abridged)

Once in one happy country there lived a pair of happy power twins. One got to rule a lot, the other some of the time but both had pretty much assured time at the trough, sooner or later. One day, the first one says: I'm so bothered with fixing those little things, the healthcare that cannot be fixed no matter the number of billions we throw at it, the inflation that we tripped with our thoughtless spending. Such low, base matters nah. No, I want higher, exalted ideals! I will do... XYZ rights!

The second twin (the blue one, if it matters) replied: no you can't do that! The prerogative and that paper what was it? said that we have to manage it, be a good government. I'm going to fix this and this and that one too, see!

- Ha-ha did you forget that with the system we have we can't fix anything because "change is not possible", our real quest and eternal motto" bu-ha-ha!

... ... right, no we can't fix anything here. So I'm gonna do XYZ rights too! Let's see who does it longer and better! Let the best one win!

The curtain. Dinosaurs know.

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1 hour ago, eyeball said:

The middle ground will be pretty narrow if a secondary suite or a $50000 RV owner can be associated with a tent city dweller on Vancouver's East Hasting's Street.

If you give the gov't enough money to conduct studies with, they can arrive at whatever conclusion you'd like :) 

1 hour ago, eyeball said:

Sounds much like renting the trailer we started in while I built the house across the street. Got moved in two weeks before my wife had our 2nd child.

gotta do what you gotta do right. But technically i could have been in violation of the rules by providing them that home to live in on my property even tho i made no profit. THe gov't has to get out of people's way and let them be creative like that.

A year or so after he left i used it again for a year for a family member and her newborn baby during covid when they ran into trouble financially.  These things have value to our society.

1 hour ago, eyeball said:

Nimby reform should be a no-brainer for anyone committed to having fewer regulations and not having to worry people from the government might respond to complaints that could make you homeless - you've been in these shoes. 

I see no reason to believe anti-nimby legislation will cost you anything.

Well you're right, but it can be a political football.  Local gov'ts don't want to make people mad.  Provincial gov'ts dont' want to pick fights that may be unpopular with local gov'ts.

We'll see.  BC is reaching a crisis point and the gov't has indicated it's willing to take some serious action to resolve things, we'll see if they do.

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1 hour ago, Aristides said:

I drive by Cole Road and Lonzo all the time. Rest areas are supposed to be just that, mainly for long distance truck drivers who have maximum duty days and need a place to park and sleep. Now they are finding rest areas full of squatters and there is nowhere for for them. Lonzo is a pig sty, it was cleaned up once but soon returned to its present state. The problem with all these places is they are on  provincial property and city bylaws have no authority. 

Its exactly the problem.  THere's also boats anchored in the harbours around vancouver and nobody can do anything about them. There's a guy named Justincredible on youtube - he's mostly political stuff now but if you search his videos for 'vanlife' he made his channel talking about how to do 'urban camping' and live in camper vans and trucks.

People are running out of options and if you don't provide SOME structure or opportunity then this is what happens.

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So besides blaming Trudeau for this problem too, what's a solution?

I would suggest a start would be spending fewer billions and years studying and more time doing. Like maybe buy some unused industrial, non-agricultural land near transit access and servicing it as a mobile home park. With the gov't "study" money and no greedy landlord that wants $1000 a month just for a trailer pad.

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4 hours ago, herbie said:

So besides blaming Trudeau for this problem too, what's a solution?

I would suggest a start would be spending fewer billions and years studying and more time doing. Like maybe buy some unused industrial, non-agricultural land near transit access and servicing it as a mobile home park. With the gov't "study" money and no greedy landlord that wants $1000 a month just for a trailer pad.

Well the problem with that is it's more provincial than anything. The feds should provide the research for how to do it safely and the money to those provinces willing to take some of that land and do exactly that kind of thing. You could even go crazy and do a version of a 'mirco' bare land strata concept for trailers and RV's so people could own something that they could later sell when they're ready to step up.

the benefit would be that unlike a new building such a site could be up and running meare months after approval. A llttle sewer laying, a little landscaping, a little hydro and you're in business.

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