Man posts to Craigslist asking to rent tent space in Vancouver backyards
Posted July 31, 2019 2:15 pm.
Last Updated August 1, 2019 8:31 am.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – In a sign of Vancouver’s ongoing affordable housing crisis, one man is asking to set up a tent in city backyards.
Connor, who has declined to give his last name, posted an ad to Craigslist’s housing page on Monday asking if he could camp in someone’s yard for $150 a month as he tries to get back on his feet.
“I want to tent in your yard for $150/month,” the ad reads. “I wouldn’t need to bother you at all, I’d mainly use the tent for sleeping and be away the rest of the time.”
Connor, who is 23, says his request is partially a result of his own mistakes and partly because of the steep Vancouver housing market.
“I wanted to find a very low-cost housing situation that wouldn’t require too much work to try and get out of debt,” he says. “There’s nothing affordable in Vancouver, unless I want to live with my parents.”
Connor says he’s done the math – if he had a good tent and a mini-generator, he could live for quite a while on $150 a month. But he knows he’s not allowed to stay in the forest or at regular campsites for a long time, so started thinking about backyards.
RELATED: Zero truly affordable rentals in Vancouver, says economic report
“To my knowledge, when I was a kid you were allowed to tent in your own backyard. It’s your backyard. You can do whatever you want in your backyard. It’s if it’s in a park or something that it’s not allowed.”
The City of Vancouver does not allow landowners to rent out spaces in their backyard for tenters for reasons including lack of access to sewage, water and power systems.
David Hutniak of Landlord BC says his organization doesn’t consider this kind of housing legitimate tenancy so it wouldn’t fall under the regular rules.
“I can’t imagine that the City of Vancouver or any municipality in Metro Vancouver would permit this,” he said in an email to NEWS 1130. “I can however say for certain that the Residential Tenancy Act would not contemplate something like this as a legitimate tenancy or form of permanent/long term housing so it would not fall under any tenancy rules/legislation.”
