As a full-time English student, Braedon Lowey spends his days taking his home on wheels between the University of Victoria, coffee shops where he can put in some work for his remote job and cruising downtown for the closing shift at a local board game restaurant.
After moving into his two-toned brown van last summer to save money, Lowey said the lifestyle requires always being prepared for the unexpected.
But his life is about to get more complicated with Victoria deciding to expand paid parking hours to between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., while bumping up rates by 50 cents an hour citywide, as of May 1.
“Even when something works I have to have a backup plan, but I wasn’t expecting this because it came so fast,” Lowey said.
As he works downtown, the longer hours will prove hard for the 24-year-old due to street parking time limits he’ll have to navigate and his van being too tall for parkades. He’ll be left with few options as the region discourages van life basically everywhere and even if he could leave his home somewhere safe, there isn’t enough transit to get him to and from work.
Lowey turned to van life to save money in a region that lacks affordable student housing, has one of Canada’s most expensive rental markets and its vacancy rate is still far below what’s considered sustainable.
“With the housing crisis that’s happening frankly everywhere but especially here, these kinds of solutions are necessary for people to survive.”
Expanding the paid parking hours could’ve been workable with adequate transit, but Lowey said busing isn’t a viable option after midnight.
“It’s going to take you forever to get home or you pay for a cab, so that’s really frustrating. I think the people this affects the most are late-night workers downtown, so we need solutions to get home,” he said, noting the parking changes could also discourage some patrons.
“If it keeps them out of downtown entirely, then that’s really frustrating for those of us that make our livelihoods down there.”
The Victoria Regional Transit Commission told Black Press Media that “potential later evening service improvements” for select key routes on weekend nights are in development for this fall.
Lowey hopes the currently limited and inconsistent late-night transit will be improved for hospitality workers, but said for now, the parking changes hurt local business’ revenue and eats into the wages of workers who still need to drive.
“It’s disruptive to a lot of people who now have to figure out solutions that the city doesn’t have,” he said. “I’d be happy to just see them backpedal and set the parking back to where it was because I think that, ultimately, this disrupts the downtown core.”
Victoria said the parking changes could raise roughly $700,000 in revenue and council directed those dollars be put back into various downtown projects – which would be a first, according to the Downtown Victoria Business Association’s CEO.
“The people who are going to be paying for some of this increased parking at least can know that it’s going to be reinvested back into downtown and not just going to general revenues,” said the DVBA’s Jeff Bray.
He hopes the funds help freshen up streetscapes, spur more events during shoulder seasons to attract people to the regional downtown and add more personnel who are trained to help people and businesses deal with disorder.
Bray called the parking issue a double-edged sword as staff and customers are usually vying for the same spots, but he said patrons need to be prioritized.
“One of the things we know is paid parking does generate more turnover, which is better for business,” he said.
Bray agrees the lack of late-night and early-morning transit is an issue for downtown workers.
The DVBA has advocated for more late-night buses and for ride-hailing apps to be approved as the restaurant sector struggles to find people to close because workers can’t get home.
The business group has also called for a diverse range of housing in the downtown core so people have the ability to walk to work.
“That’s one of the ways you can deal with some of those challenges,” Bray said.
Milk and Honey Beauty Bar’s owner Shai Yong hears from her loyal clientele every day that finding parking is already a challenge. That’s usually due to open spots on the street being hard to find and city lots being filled up with construction workers first thing in the morning.
Clients being just a few minutes late for their 15-minute appointments because they can’t find parking has caused Yong to lose out on business.
She understands revenue has to be generated in the growing city, but said “there has to be some other way.”
READ: Victoria looks to further cut tax hike with longer paid parking hours
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