The Mayor of Victoria says she wants to change the rules around residents sleeping in cars.
A motion will soon go to Victoria council that would mean people will not receive a ticket if they sleep in their vehicles.
If the measure is passed it would apply when the vacancy rate falls below three per cent.
Mayor Lisa Helps says with a shortfall in supportive housing units, she wants an exemption to a city bylaw that normally allows the tickets.
“There’s a lot of working people sleeping in vehicles and they need a good night’s sleep so they can keep their jobs,” said Helps. “If they are homeless and jobless then we have a bigger problem as a society than someone asleep in their car in the middle of the night.”
Right now, Victoria’s vacancy rate is 0.5 per cent and it has not risen above four per cent for about 20 years.
Data gathered by the city shows that 80 tickets were issued to people who were sleeping in vehicles in 2014. The number dropped slightly to 62 in 2015 but last year it soared to 176.