Victor LaRock says his motorhome parked on Calgary’s Moraine Road provides him with a safe place where he can end his workday.
But lately, LaRock hasn’t been feeling all that comfortable, with a lot of sleepless nights. For the past three weeks, LaRock and his neighbours, who call themselves “Moraine Motorhomes,” have been anxiously expecting “no parking” signs to pop up on the street.
“I don’t know what time they’re going to show up. It could be 6 o’clock in the morning, 3 o’clock in the afternoon. If I go out to do my grocery shop, am I going to come back to see no parking signs? It’s stressful.”
The situation comes after the city said it would put up the signs along the stretch of Moraine Road, where the nine-camper community has lived for roughly a decade.
“We’ve scouted some other areas to go and park, but again, what kind of solution is that?”
The RVs have been granted a temporary extension to stay, but it’s not forever.
“(We’re) trying to find suitable lands that have the appropriate land use, or in the case where we don’t have the appropriate land use, to transition it,” explains Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot.
“These aren’t things that happen overnight.”
The city acknowledges there is a need for creative solutions in the midst of a housing crisis, but the potential demand brings its own issues.
“As the old saying goes, you build it and they shall come,” Chabot says. “So, if we build a facility to accommodate this use, how many units are going to want to participate in it?”
The residents and Chabot attended a town hall in the councillor’s ward on Thursday night, stating their cases with a crowd of dozens in attendance.
Several times throughout the back-and-forth, applause rang out from some attendees who were sympathetic to LaRock and the other residents’ situation.
“We want to see them have a solution,” explained George Clark, a resident of Chabot’s ward.
“And if the solution means to stay in their RVs until the situation’s drastically improved — power to them.”
Clark said he went to visit LaRock and the other residents after the story was first reported earlier this month.
“If they were to pay 20 per cent of their verifiable income, it would be a viable solution,” Clark said.
While the city tries to figure out the best place for the RVs to set up camp, the residents are eager to be a part of the conversation to determine their future.
“Permit it. They do it for residential areas, why not do it for industrial areas?” said James Wright, another RV owner. “As long as we’re not blocking access to businesses or anything else, I don’t see really what the issue is. ”
Chabot said several times at the Ward 10 town hall that LaRock and the other residents would be consulted on the next step of their journey, although he wouldn’t put a timeline on when that might come — only that he was hopeful to have an answer within a few months.
So while LaRock, Wright and others may be able to sleep a little easier on Moraine Road for the next little while, their long-term future is still anything but certain.