The City of Victoria is looking at letting people sleep in their cars if they can't find somewhere to live. There is a bylaw that bars people from sleeping in their cars.
Councillor Chris Coleman says this is about helping people who are working but can't find or afford lodging because of the low vacancy rate of 0.5 %.
"So we tried to find a discussion point that we could bring forward to council to say this would mimic in many ways the court imposed sanctions around tenting in parks. So 7 p.m. to 7a.m. If that's all you have, then yes you can sleep in your car. It isn't, it doesn't open up the door to moving your RV's onto Dallas Rd. in the summer because it's a nice place to live."
Councillor Chris Coleman says this is also not being done to allow rolling Air BnB's or even people trying to rent their cars as accommodation.
"This was very specifically targeted at people who live in their cars. Um, it's not to have somebody else... on Craig's list at the moment there's a new ad up saying I've got 2 cars. They are licensed, you can't have keys to drive them, but you can stay in them , they're at my place in Fairfield."
Coleman knows this is going to create a heated debate when it comes before council on Thursday.