Mobility in the fast lane
Vancouverites living in vans, trailers to avoid high rents
On Oleksandr Iaremko’s Facebook page is a photograph by Foster Huntington of an old brown camper van draped in clothes and parked in the middle of nowhere, with a quotation: “Home is where you park it.”
It’s a message Iaremko, and others in metro vancouver, are taking to heart, living in vans, trailers and rvs as a cheaper alternative to paying high-priced rents across the region.
The vehicles can be spotted in almost every municipality — in clusters on industrial lots, on residential side streets or in the parking lots of big-box stores.
For some, the truly homeless, vehicles are the only option in this overheated housing market, which has resulted in record-low vacancy rates and high rents. For others, they are a choice.
“It has its pluses and minuses,” says Iaremko, a 26-yearold roofer who has been living in a cargo van for more than a month. “There are some conveniences. you don’t have to go home after work and it forces you out more. you’re not staying in your apartment.”
Iaremko’s van is a tidy, cosy home, with a raised bed under which he has tucked his belongings, tools and food. An electric piano is strapped to the side panel behind the driver’s seat, while sheets of plywood are tucked in beside the bed, waiting to cover the insulation he’s installing to make his home warmer for the winter. He doesn’t have the luxury of his own shower, toilet, or even a sink, but Iaremko has creative ways to make up for such shortfalls.
A raw foodie who occasionally eats cooked foods, Iaremko uses a gas-powered camp stove to make coffee and the odd fried egg, while he always parks near all-night coffee shops for those late-night pit stops or to wash out his mug.
A pass to vancouver swimming pools provides him with swims and showers, while bigbox stores have high-speed and super-fast Internet, especially at night when no one is using it.
“I’m flexible with this life,” he said, but noted it’s not for everyone. “you’re stepping outside your comfort zone and that’s how you grow.”
City officials say they have no idea how many people are living in their vehicles, either by necessity or choice. In the annual homeless count in vancouver, such people are lumped in with the so-called “hidden homeless” — people who do not have a rented place of their own, but stay in “other” places, such as jail, hostels, hotels, or a friend’s place, rather than shelters.
“There are just more people struggling with poverty and homelessness,” said ethel Whitty, a director at the city’s Carnegie Community Centre who oversees vancouver’s homeless services. “There are probably places you can park where you won’t be noticed and can stay for quite awhile.”
but Judy Graves, a longtime advocate for the homeless in vancouver, said people have been living in vehicles across the city for decades for many reasons. The movement, she said, hearkens back to the 1960s when people were shedding societal norms.
Living in a van is a slightly watered down dream for Iaremko, a budding musician who had grand schemes last year of driving an rv across Canada and busking along the way. When the rv kept breaking down, he scoured Craigslist, jumping at the chance to buy his current home, a cargo van, for $1,680. His annual expenses include insurance, which is about $1,200, along with gas and his pass for vancouver recreational centres.
There are trade-offs, though, to living in a vehicle. Iaremko said he was hurt when his boss suggested he was living off the backs of his friends, whom he sometimes joins for dinner or get-togethers. And with no shower or bathroom, he has to plan his parking stops.
And if someone steals his van, they’re taking his entire home.
but Iaremko isn’t daunted. He intends to stick it out in his van, if only to prove to his boss he can be self-sufficient, until he can get himself a tiny house or an rv that is roadworthy enough to get him across Canada. Since adopting his new lifestyle, he’s made a lot of new friends, he said, who offer tips for easier and cheaper living, such as converting vehicles to run on vegetable oil and how to wash dishes with vinegar and water spray.
“We’re not tied to one spot,” said Iaremko, originally from ukraine. “I’ve been travelling all my life. everyone I’ve met who lives in a van has something they can do. It saves time and money. While the other guys are travelling back home, I’m playing the piano in my van. I don’t have a shower but I have music. That’s very important to me.”
You don’t have to go home after work and it forces you out more