Residents living in motorhomes on an industrial street in northeast Calgary are wondering where they will go in a months time after being given permits that expire.
Last month, the residents in RVs parked on Moraine Road NE were told they could stay after being granted a temporary exemption — now the residents tell CityNews they are in limbo after the city dropped off permits this week that are set to expire on Nov. 21.
James Wright is a retired journeyman who is on disability and says he started living on Moraine Road after Calgary’s rental market forced him to live in his motorhome.
“The reason I’m in this situation is because my house sold to a developer who wanted us to stay as tenants,” he says. “Three days after they took possession they send an eviction notice.”
“Where do you go when they’re charging $1,500 for a one bedroom right now. It’s insane.”
Wright isn’t the only one, with several other RV residents saying rent is so high in Calgary that it’s leaving them no other option.
David Dockrill says he was paying $950 a month when his landlord told him he could get $1,600 for the apartment he was renting.
“He came up and said ‘if you are going to stay you have to pay me $1,350, and you don’t get the garage no more.”
At the time of the temporary exemption, Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said the city was considering developing a more long-term option.
In a statement to CityNews on Tuesday, the City of Calgary says they are working on a solution that would move the residents from Moraine Road to what they are calling “a more suitable location.”
“It can’t be a spot out of the city, it can’t be a spot in some far out area,” says RV resident Victor LaRock, who has lived in his RV on Moraine for about a decade. “We need amenities.”
“We need some place close by to do groceries, close by to do laundry, close by to do our propane and everything else.”
Chabot says the city’s traffic engineers have indicated that the street in an industrial park where the motorhomes are currently parked is not safe.
“The road geometry is not suited to accommodate people parking on the side and having two heavy trucks going in opposite directions along that same road way,” says Chabot.
He did express some openness for different ways to house people, including potentially allowing them to live in motorhomes, just not on Moraine Road after Nov. 21.
“This could be something that could be administered through the Home is Here program, as one example from a funding source perspective where the federal government has given us money to help to keep people housed,” he says.
The program is a housing strategy by the city that aims to increase the housing supply and make it more affordable.
A current bylaw prohibits RVs from being parked on a residential street for longer than 36 hours.