Tucked away in empty lots and behind places of business is a growing community of residents who find refuge in their vehicles.
For some, living in a van is an enticing way to break away from conformity and pursue an alternative lifestyle, while for others it’s the only way to make ends meet in a community where it is becoming more and more difficult to find affordable and available accommodation.
Few people know this better than Mitch Popilchak, a 50-year-old Calgary native who has spent the past nine months living in his modified truck scraping by at a minimum wage job. He hopes to put away enough money this summer so he doesn’t have to spend another winter in his truck.
“As novel as the van life has become on social media, it is not what it appears to be,” said Popilchak, referring to social media hash tags like #vanlife that have popularlized the lifestyle.
“A lot of people choose to live in their vehicles because they can’t afford to pay rent.”
For Popilchak, living in his truck was never part of his plan, but through a series of unfortunate events in his life, including a downturn in the economy and taking care of his sick mother, he was left with little other option.
“Affordable housing is between $400 and $800 a month. When you do the math on a $15 an hour, if you’re lucky, 40-hour-a-week pay cheque, you choose between food or rent in Canmore – it’s as simple as that.”
For others like Laurelle Birk, living in her van is a choice – albeit a choice she would rather not have to make if she could find somewhere affordable to live that would also allow her to save money to start her own business.
“It is a choice, but if I really think about it and if I want to have any reasonable amount of savings, or if I want to eat the way I do, all of these lifestyle choices I make to live a really good life, I wouldn’t be able to do if I had to pay $750 in rent every month,” said Birk.
The 30-year-old entrepreneur has spent the past two summers living discreetly in her van, a lifestyle she readily admits she enjoys, but also admits isn’t a long-term solution.
“I’m really enjoying the experience of living in my van and having the freedom and not owning a lot of things – the simplicity of it – but I don’t want to live in my van forever,” said Birk.
“I’m starting a small business here and I want to make Canmore my home, but that’s really hard to do when you look at the cost of living here.”
While neither Popilchak or Birk have a fixed address in town, both consider themselves residents of Canmore and are part of a growing shadow population that is concerned they are being pushed out of town.
“We live in a really gentrified community and van dwellers aren’t innately bad and I think of myself as a really valuable community member,” said Birk, who helped start up the Canmore Food Recovery Barn and is a board member of Alpine Edible Schoolyards.
“I’m a young individual who really wants to make this a better community, so I think it would be a really big shame if we started to implement policies that make it more and more difficult for people like me to stay in the community.”
While the municipality is adamant it is not trying to push anyone out of town, Popilchak isn’t convinced, pointing to recent parking changes at Elevation Place that have forced van dwellers to park their vehicles elsewhere in the community.
“These people are pouring your coffee every morning,” said Popilchak, who volunteers with Food and Friends every Monday.
“If you get rid of this segment of the population that supports the service industry, there won’t be anyone to make your five dollar latte.”
Andy Esarte, manager of engineering services for Canmore, said recent approval of the town’s integrated parking management plan, which includes plans to implement paid parking in the downtown core and introduce parking limitations in other lots, isn’t intended to push anyone out of town.
“Parking isn’t a tool for managing social issues,” said Esarte. “Parking management is really about making use of the space that we have available for parking in order for us to have a functional downtown and a functional transportation network.”
He acknowledged that some of the recent parking changes at Elevation Place may have displaced people who live in their vans, however, he was quick to point out that next door behind Save-On-Foods there are 60 spots available without any limitations.
“There are over 10,000 parking stalls in Canmore and only a very, very small percentage of those have any restrictions,” said Esarte.
“The panhandle, where we have a lot of overnight parking and camper parking right now, that’s been designated for all day parking and only a portion of it has been restricted to no overnight parking,” he said, explaining the area was left unrestricted at the request of bylaw and family and community support services.
Officials with the town are uncertain how many people currently live in their vehicles, but acknowledge this summer it appears to have peaked.
“From my perspective, this is the busiest that I’ve ever seen it,” said Greg Burt, manager of protective services for the town.
The spike in people living in their vehicles hasn’t gone unnoticed by the mayor and council either.
At a recent council meeting, a staff report indicated several municipal services departments have collaborated on a plan for managing overnight parking and camping in the panhandle between Elevation Place and Save-On-Foods.
According to the report, signage has already been installed in the panhandle area to formally designate it as an area where overnight camping is permitted. Public works also placed a port-a-potty at the site to ensure there is a washroom for people to use.
Staff in community and social development are also looking into the possibility of creating a permitting system for next summer that will allow overnight camping for those working in town.
While details about the permitting system remain scant, town officials are approaching the issue “holistically,” rather than relying on enforcement to deal with it.
“From an enforcement perspective we are viewing it from a safety perspective,” said Burt.
Instead of slapping people with parking infractions, he said both the RCMP and bylaw officers are working with van dwellers to seek compliance and regularly conduct patrols in the area to ensure vehicles are registered and have insurance. They are also making sure there is no garbage or animal attractants left outside of vehicles.
“We are taking a more proactive, educational approach,” said Burt.
That being said, he emphasized bylaw officers are still enforcing the town’s parking bylaws elsewhere in town using everything from verbal warnings to writing tickets.
“In the panhandle area we haven’t been doing any ticketing, but if it is in other areas in town there’s various means to enforce the rules.”
While both Birk and Popilchak have never received a ticket or been rousted, it remains a concern for both of them.
“The general rule of thumb is you roll in late, roll out early and never park where you are going to sleep,” said Popilchak. “You don’t linger and you don’t leave a mess.”
He acknowledged some van dwellers aren’t the tidiest, but said the majority are very respectful of the environment and their neighbours.
“Yeah, like everything else in life, there’s the 10 per centers that abuse the system or make a mess, but that’s rich or poor.”
He explained that for those who truly live in their vans on a more permanent basis van life isn’t as glorious as social media has made it seem.
“It’s tough,” said Popilchak. “You pee in a bottle, you poop in a bag. In the middle of the night you’re not getting up to go to a bathroom somewhere so there’s that side of it. How do I maintain food? How do I get a good night’s sleep? You’re always worried you’re going to get the knock, knock, knock.”
For Birk, the key is to live as discreetly as possible.
“I don’t park in the Elevation Place parking lot or at the grocery store parking lot. I try to keep under the radar that way.”
Mayor John Borrowman acknowledged the number of people living in their vehicles is a growing concern for the community and agreed with the town’s current approach.
“Given the circumstances, it’s a reasonable approach to take,” said Borrowman.
“Several years ago there was quite a conversation in council when we were approving a revision of the streets and roads bylaw. There was initially some talk in the bylaw that could have led to a very restrictive approach to people who were living in their car parked on a roadway, but council said quite explicitly that we didn’t want to be harassing people that are down on their luck or have various issues and just boot them out of town.”
Lisa Brown, manager of community social development and chair of the Homeless to Housing Coalition, said there is no easy answer to what has become a very complex problem.
“Giving somebody who already has affordability issues a ticket doesn’t actually solve any kind of problem,” said Brown. “Having access to affordable housing and affordable housing options is key to making sure people are successful in the community.”
In the short-term, she said, the coalition is focusing on ensuring people who live in their vehicles in winter are safe when temperatures plunge by providing emergency accommodations at places like the YWCA in Banff.
In the medium-term, she said, the municipality is exploring several safe parking models, some of which are currently being piloted by U.S. cities to try and solve their own homeless issues.
“The different models we’re looking at is to see if we could make some kind of a van life as successful as possible for people who can’t get into affordable housing or can’t afford rent in the community,” said Brown.
What that might look like remains to be seen. However, when Canmore faced a similar housing problem in the 1990s it set up Wapiti Tents Campground to stop people from illegally camping in the woods.
The purpose of the campground, located next to the Visitor Information Centre, was to provide an alternative form of transitional housing for seasonal workers.
“We ran it as a municipal campground so visitors could stay, but primarily it was for seasonal workers who were working throughout the community,” explained Burt.
As part of the 2009 budget, administration recommended moving towards a 24/7 staffing model, which would have increased operating costs by approximately $100,000.
As a result, council directed staff to explore hiring a contractor to take over operation of the campground, which led to increased fees ($25 a day or $750 a month) making it unaffordable for many seeking seasonal accommodation.
Mayor Borrowman said the campsite initially proved to be successful, but blamed the lack of employee housing as the larger issue that needs to be addressed.
He said the private sector needs to play a larger role to resolve the issue.
“The reality is we shouldn’t be in the construction business,” said Borrowman.
“We’re building housing for people that live and work and help run our community, but housing for summer employees or temporary workers should be the responsibility of the business sector to provide more staff accommodation.”
He pointed to Northview Reit as a viable business model that could be replicated to help build employee housing elsewhere in town. The company is currently building 140 long term rental units plus eight five-bedroom staff units along Palliser Trail that are expected to be finished soon.
He said the municipality got close to reaching a deal to build additional employee housing with a builder from Ontario around 2005-2006, but negotiations fell apart as the next election approached.
He said part of the problem was that local businesses didn’t appear to be interested, making it difficult to establish a business case to build the units.
“That was a really viable option,” recalled Borrowman, adding employee housing will be discussed when the town updates its land use planning and development bylaw in the new year.
“We have to put something in place that’s regulatory so this situation of limited employee housing is improved.”
While everyone agrees there is no easy solution, it’s clear that creating a variety of affordable housing options will be key to resolving the issue so people from all walks of life are able to live, work and play in Canmore.
“Affordability is complex, but people are people and no matter your socioeconomic status you should feel safe and have a place you can call home,” said Brown.
