Victoria’s mayor and a city councillor are set to pitch a bylaw change this week in response to the capital region’s low vacancy rate.
Mayor Lisa Helps and Chris Coleman want to see temporary exemptions granted to a current bylaw which prohibits people from sleeping in their vehicles overnight.
The exemptions would come into effect when the city’s vacancy rate dips below three per cent.
“It’s not rocket science, people need a place to live and people who are working need to have a good sleep so they can go to work in the morning, keep their jobs and eventually find housing,” Helps said.
Victoria’s vacancy currently stands at 0.5 per cent.
Over the past three years the number of tickets issued for sleeping in vehicles has been on the rise.
Helps and Coleman say the data analysis suggests visitors and tourists aren’t the ones who are primarily being ticketed.
The issue will be discussed at a committee meeting on Thursday.
