We need your help! As the RDN heads into public hearings about its proposed Draft 2500 Zoning Bylaws this coming November 4 (in Cedar) and November 7 (Nanoose Bay), some serious questions about affordable housing and RVs as compassionate housing in the housing crisis remain very very real. In fact, the Parksville Qualicum Beach area currently faces an affordable housing deficit of 1520 units. While nearby Parksville and Qualicum Beach have been working overtime to address the crisis, the Regional District of Nanaimo has focused instead on procedural matters, redefining setbacks, rejigging its commercial zones, and shortening allowable building distance to riparian zones. The RDN has consistently argued over the last four years that affordable housing can wait. 

However, regional neighbours are urging the RDN to act now. A local councillor in Parksville has asked the RDN to 'help take off the pressure'  of the regional crisis by moving meaningfully on its own affordable housing deficit. 

We have an answer to that rallying cry: permitting RVs and movable homes in residential zones in order to open up safe and serviced spaces for people desperate for dignified and affordable housing in rural parts of the RDN. 

So, first, thank you to every single one of you for your amazing support to demand that the Regional District of Nanaimo and other local governments take the housing crisis seriously by taking a compassionate stance towards moveable homes (RVs and tiny-homes built to RV specifications) in Oceanside on Vancouver Island. 

Your voices have helped force the Regional District of Nanaimo to walk back some of its quiet efforts to completely ban longterm RV living in the region. As of September, the District has committed to not enforcing length of stay (ie 180 day limits) in RV parks, campgrounds, and resorts in the region until it completes its affordable housing review by the end of 2025. This helps to protect hundreds of vulnerable seniors and others currently living longterm in RVs in these facilities in the worst housing emergency of our generation. You have also provided guidance to those directors within the RDN committed to finding real solutions to the housing crisis -- there is a  dedicated number of them who support the legalizing of RVs/movable homes as housing and/or moving meaningfully on solving our regional housing crisis. Your voices help advance their advocacy. 

However, the RDN is still aiming to pass the Draft Bylaw 2500 that contains language that restricts RVs as dwellings — and although they have committed to ‘reviewing’ RVs as permanent housing in phase 2 of their zoning bylaw review process, there is no guarantee that they will fully acknowledge the pressing extent of the housing crisis across the region or embrace the flexible and dynamic solutions needed to create legal affordable housing in rural areas right now. Further, space in RV parks, campgrounds is extremely limited (some parks have waitlists that are 2 or 3 years long), and, with the knowledge that folks forced to live in RVs have almost no legal options for where to park, some local parks are charging folks with pad rentals as high as $1650 to rent out an older fifth wheel (or, you can get a ‘steal’ on a smaller trailer for $1350 a month). So, although the temporary reprieve in enforcement in parks, campgrounds, and resorts is welcome, our most precarious neighbours are still at extreme risk of housing insecurity and housing discrimination in the longterm. The RDN needs to hear from you about the need to take a firmer stand on permitting RVs as compassionate housing across the region -- in parks, campgrounds, resorts, and residential zones -- to meet the unprecedented demand for affordable housing right now.  Not a year from now.

Further, the RDN is also still cracking down on folks living in RVs in residential zones. 

The RDN needs to heed the call from neighbouring towns to ‘pull its own weight’ in creating affordable housing now.

CAN YOU HELP US? PLEASE SEND A SHORT NOTE TO THE RDN LETTING THEM KNOW THAT YOU SUPPORT THE CREATION OF A TRANSPARENT, FAIR, AND EQUITABLE PROCESS TO PERMIT RVs AS FLEXIBLE AND SAFE AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN RESIDENTIAL ZONES IN RURAL REGIONS ACROSS THE RDN. You can point out that local governments in Grand Forks, Ucluelet, and Valemount have all found ways to permit this form of housing in response to local affordable housing shortages. You can also point out that cities like San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Los Angeles County, and others have also figured out how to permit tiny homes built to RV standards as accessory dwelling units in residential zones to address housing shortages in their regions. 

You can send your letters to the Board of Directors of the RDN using the following contact info: 

vanessa.craig@rdn.bc.ca; stuart.mclean@rdn.bc.ca; jessica.stanley@rdn.bc.ca; lauren.melanson@rdn.bc.ca; bob.rogers@rdn.bc.ca; leanne.salter@rdn.bc.ca; lehann.wallace@rdn.bc.ca; leonard.krog@nanaimo.ca; tyler.brown@nanaimo.ca; ben.geselbracht@nanaimo.ca; erin.hemmens@nanaimo.ca; anice.perrino@nanaimo.ca; paul.manly@nanaimo.ca; ian.thorpe@nanaimo.ca; mayor@parksville.ca; councillorwood@parksville.ca; mayor.swain@lantzville.ca; mayor@qualicumbeach.com; 

THANK YOU AND WISHING YOU ALL SAFE AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING.