The City of Burnaby is set to take action against urban campers taking up residence on local streets and sticking their hoses into Burnaby’s sewer system.
“If they’re there all day, we’re not concerned,” public safety director Dave Critchley said at a public safety committee meeting last week. “What we’re concerned with is when they’re there all day, all night, all day, all night, and put their hoses into our sewer system.” According to Critchley, the committee has gotten “numerous complaints” about people parking campers and trailers on city streets and living in them.
He said a bylaw change is needed to help bylaw officers prevent the problem from taking root as it has in Vancouver, where vehicle dwellers have become entrenched in certain areas, like the Evans Avenue-Glen Drive strip in East Van.
Currently, vehicles over 8,000 pounds, trailers, mobile homes and camper units detached from a vehicle are prohibited from parking on Burnaby streets “for more than two hours between the hours of 1 and 6 a.m.” Critchley said the two-hour limit in the bylaw makes it hard to enforce, and the committee is now recommending council remove it to make parking of such vehicles illegal for any length of time between 1 and 6 a.m.
“I don’t think it’s a tremendous problem,” Critchley said of Burnaby situation. “We just want to make sure that we try and get on it before it does.”
When the story by the NOW hit our Facebook page, we received some generally positive comments about the city looking to stop this behaviour.
But lost in all of this is the reason why some people are living in RVs on city streets – the affordability crisis.
Think about it – do you really think people want to live out of an RV on an urban street? Do you think it’s some sort of adventure?
No, it’s a humiliating choice many people are being forced to take. Either they can’t afford a place to live, or they can’t even find a place to live because so many affordable rental units are being destroyed, such as what’s been happening in the Metrotown area – a situation that helped cost ex-mayor Derek Corrigan his job.
Members of the committee did feel some sympathy for people living in the RVs. And we get why the city wants to toughen up its bylaws. But let’s also put in the same or more effort into solving the affordability problem that is creating a RV situation.
