Why B.C. man drives a Tesla but lives in a van | 24CA News
At the tip of his day, Lucas Philips drives to his residence overlooking Spanish Banks Beach in Vancouver, close to a number of the costliest actual property in Canada.
He climbs out of his black Tesla and soaks up what he calls his “million-dollar view.”
But Philips is not any rich property proprietor. His house is a Vanguard campervan berthed in a beachside car parking zone.
He spends most of his life on wheels, working as an Uber driver in his leased Tesla. He’s attempting to get forward, and lives in his “sweet motor home” whereas taking on-line programs within the hope of getting a job in pc science.
Philips, who immigrated from Turkey 5 years in the past, thinks himself fortunate to share the view with mansion house owners with out draining his financial savings.
He’s a member of a group of Vancouverites dwelling in vans, trailers and different leisure automobiles parked throughout the town.
Some, like Philips, use it as an financial technique to chop prices as they plot a course to prosperity.
Others have opted for a nomadic life-style, and plan to maneuver on.
But extra persons are sleeping in automobiles as a final resort, as they attempt to stave off full-blown homelessness within the notoriously costly metropolis.
Philips mentioned in an interview in November that he used to pay month-to-month hire of $1,600 for a one-bedroom suite in North Vancouver. When his hire went as much as $2,300, he determined it didn’t make sense.
“The rent prices are just skyrocketing and it’s really feeling not that great when you pay for rent with half of your income,” he mentioned.
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Pandemic fuels the attract of ‘van life’
So, he purchased a van and began dwelling at Spanish Banks in October. Side advantages to the financial savings had been that it made him really feel nearer to nature, and he loved the van group’s pleasant vibe.
He mentioned he hoped to maneuver again into an house this 12 months to higher give attention to his research.
However, others have embraced life on wheels.
Retired Californian mechanical engineer Alex Mosson, 58, was parked final week at Spanish Banks in a beige leisure automobile he known as his “tiny house.”
He supplied wine from a rack as he ready a pot of clam chowder, with bacon and sourdough bread contemporary out of the oven.
Newly arrived in Canada, he was joined by girlfriend Massie McCloud, 52, a retired airline pilot who lives in Kitsilano. They had been planning to spend a number of extra nights in Vancouver, then Whistler, then head for Mexico, the place Mosson used to reside. In March, they plan to return for a cross-Canada journey, mentioned McCloud.
“Don’t get other people jealous,” interjected Mosson.
McCloud likened the RV to “a giant backpack.”
“You have all your things with you,” she mentioned. “Part of the reason we are both excited about doing this trip is that we both had really confined lives for the last several years,” mentioned McCloud, who added that she is recovering from lengthy COVID.
But not everybody on wheels has a alternative.
Over a number of visits to Spanish Banks, many residents gave the impression to be dwelling out of vehicles and pickups, ill-equipped for the aim.
Their home windows had been screened with makeshift curtains for privateness, their again seats and truck beds full of possessions.
The residents approached in these conditions had been extra cautious.
November rain dripped off the face of 1 man as he made repairs to his white field truck, strewn in black graffiti. He declined to offer his title for an interview, saying he discovered his circumstances humiliating.
Dean Kurpjuweit, president of Vancouver’s Union Gospel Mission, mentioned vans and trailers have grow to be a manner for some working folks to remain within the metropolis amid excessive typical housing prices.
But the mission “will never advocate for living in vans as an alternative housing solution,” he mentioned.
“We buy trailers to go on vacations. … But nobody wants to permanently (live there),” he mentioned.
Kurpjuweit mentioned his group had helped folks transfer from leisure automobiles into supportive housing.
He mentioned there’s a distinction between the “wilderness experience” of an RV, in contrast with cramped and inconvenient long-term life within the metropolis.
Living for an prolonged interval in a trailer in Vancouver is usually as a result of “reality of the housing market here,” Kurpjuweit mentioned.
Local residents mentioned in summer season and early fall that a whole lot of individuals had been dwelling in automobiles at Spanish Banks. Dozens had been nonetheless there within the fall, even after the City of Vancouver began warning folks to maneuver on, though their numbers dwindled with the onset of winter.
There are different campers in much less scenic places, clustered close to big-box shops or scattered on quiet aspect streets.
Keith Light, 76, used to personal a house on Pender Island, a 40-minute ferry trip to Swarts Bay on Vancouver Island. But for greater than half a 12 months he’s lived in a leisure automobile, now parked outdoors an east Vancouver Canadian Tire retailer.
In 2021, Light bought his island residence to repay money owed. He mentioned this week that it wasn’t till he’d relocated to Metro Vancouver that he realized housing prices had been “ten times higher” than on Pender.
He lived with a pal, who bought “a little tired” of his presence after a couple of 12 months, and he moved out in May.
“So, I got online and found this R.V. I got a pretty good deal on it, and it cost me $19,000,” mentioned Light, who lives on a month-to-month pension of $1,900.
He mentioned it was comfy however not a everlasting resolution.
For one factor, the van has no electrical energy. Light mentioned two exterior mills had been stolen and the automobile’s built-in generator didn’t work.
There’s additionally a way of insecurity confronted by most automobile dwellers.
It’s unlawful to park a big automobile on the road or in parks in Vancouver between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., together with at Spanish Banks, though exceptions apply.
Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Eva Cook mentioned in an announcement that illegally parked RVs stay a “challenging issue” in lots of communities.
Since October, 47 notices reminding house owners of parking guidelines had been issued and most automobiles parked in a single day at Spanish Banks had moved, she mentioned.
Cook mentioned it was nonetheless working to “educate” customers that in a single day parking isn’t allowed in parks.
Paul Kershaw, a coverage professor on the University of British Columbia’s college of inhabitants, mentioned many individuals dwelling in vans are “just as smart and as hard-working” as householders.
But some have been born too late and are actually locked out of Vancouver’s actual property market or are going through prohibitive hire on even a one-bedroom house.
Vancouver stays the costliest place to hire in Canada, with the common worth of a one-bedroom house now going for $2,633 monthly, in response to the National Rental Report issued final month.
Saving up for a house can also be out of attain for a lot of.
“In the mid-’70s, it took the typical young person five years of full-time work to save a 20 per cent down payment on an average-priced home. Now it takes 17 years,” mentioned Kershaw.
Jenny Tan, a metropolis councillor in Maple Ridge, east of Vancouver, is all too accustomed to the area’s excessive housing prices.
She used to reside in Vancouver’s West End in a trailer, an expertise that compelled her to get into politics to attempt to make issues “a little more affordable.”
“I will be super honest, if I had a choice, I wouldn’t be doing it for fun,” she mentioned.
She lived in her trailer for 3 years as “cheerfully and optimistically” as she might, equipping it with a projector and internet hosting board video games with buddies.
“But look, I wouldn’t have chosen that if there was a one-bedroom apartment that I could rent somewhere,” mentioned Tan.
She mentioned she ended up in a trailer in 2017 after doing “all the right things in life” by graduating from college and touchdown an honest job.
With cash tight, dwelling in her trailer was higher than paying hire. But the downsides outweighed any sense of enjoyable.
“Living in a trailer, you are constantly in fear, stressed about losing your spot, about the bylaw officers,” she mentioned. “For the years I lived in my trailer, I had no hot running water.”
Tan ultimately moved into her mother and father’ home and regarded her trailer life a studying expertise. “But it was not the thing I would have chosen,” mentioned Tan.
In east Vancouver, Light agrees.
Living in an RV is healthier than sleeping on the road, however what he actually desires is a everlasting residence.
He mentioned a renter ought to need to pay not more than 30 per cent of their earnings to place a roof over their head.
“I’m really, really hoping that I can get a bachelor suite or one-bedroom in one of these subsidized housing units in Vancouver,” mentioned Light.
He mentioned he spent a 12 months on the ready record with BC Housing.
“But unfortunately, the only way the places come up are basically when somebody dies. And that’s pretty bad. That’s also a sad thing.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 6, 2023.
This story was produced with the monetary help of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
