A Vernon couple won their housing struggle with the city.
Lee and Sondra Watkins have been given the go-ahead from the city to stay in the RV they have parked on a family member’s farm this week and, in turn, the nearly $3,000 in city fines they were handed are to be rescinded and the rules they ran up against will change.
“We were in shock, and also just, it was such a relief,” Lee said Tuesday, after his long fought battle to get city bylaws to align with rules from the Agricultural Land Commission was won, allowing him and his wife to stay put.
The couple had resorted to living in an RV on their family’s Vernon area acreage 18 months ago due to a turn of bad fortune worsened by the housing supply and the pandemic. The move was and remains a stop gap, until they’re able to rally their resources and buy their own home.
The RV, after all, would have been allowed to be there, so why couldn’t they, they argued when told they had to leave in the aftermath of a complaint from a neighbour. The city’s zoning bylaw, they were told, does not consider an RV a dwelling unit and prohibits the use of an RV as a permanent year-round accommodation.
When their plea to the city fell on deaf ears, they launched a petition that garnered more than 5,000 signatures of support and they turned to the media for more attention that would help them in their plight.
“Its been a year and a half of fighting this and a lot of stress, a lot of emails and a lot of things going on,” Lee said.
The Agricultural Land Commission and Technical Safety officers found the living situation compliant with their provincial rules, and on Monday council ruled they would align their zoning bylaws with the province.
“Yesterday’s long conversation ended in a decision by council to instruct staff to bring back a bylaw with changes in those regulations to match the agriculture land commission,” Mayor Victor Cumming said.
Cumming pointed out that once the bylaw has been drafted by staff, then there will be good public warning and information about when we’re going to have the public hearing.
A public hearing is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
“My wife and I, we’re just above and beyond … (we) feel so grateful and so happy that we can get back to focusing on day-to-day life and not worrying about another ticket or another visit or whatever it might be,” Lese said.
He hopes the shift will not just help his family. He thinks it could benefit those facing an uphill battle as a result of the housing crisis.
“This could open the door and set a precedent for many other municipalities throughout the province and create respectable and proper solutions for people during this housing crisis,” he said. “Even people that are in the same situation within our community on ALR land, they can breathe a little easier and relax.”