‘Where do we go?’: Renovicted metalworker wants Shubie RV park open year-round

It’s not luxury living, but that’s not what Jeremy Van den Eynden is after.

For the past month and a half, he’s been living out of a 33-year-old Granville Bonair RV. It’s tight quarters: he shares his vintage trailer with his dog and two cats.

Van den Eynden likes the simplicity of the setup.

An electrical hookup powers his TV, heaters and dryer. His fridge and hot water run on propane.

“I’ve got everything we need. Tuesdays and Fridays, a guy shows up to pump out our sewage tank.”

He pays $287 a month for a spot at Shubie Campground in Dartmouth. A month before he moved there, the province gave the city $180,000 to keep the site open through the winter.

It was perfect timing for Van den Eynden. He’d just lost his apartment of seven years — renovicted. That’s when a landlord forces tenants out of a building so it can be fixed up and generally rented out for a lot more money.    

The full-time metal fabricator went looking for another apartment with no luck.  He had been paying $790 a month for his old one-bedroom and there was nothing like that out there. The municipality has some of the fastest-rising rents and one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country. Right now, there are 1,100 people on the city’s homeless list.

Shubie is the only place in the city set up for RVs right now. Van den  Eynden’s nervous about what will happen to him and others living there in the spring. He says the city and province need to look at opening RV parks year-round.

“We need something like this, something in the city with access to bus routes. We need something in the city that has power hookups, a central station for getting water, your waste picked up and laundry service.”

SaltWire spoke to another person living at the park who is also hoping for the same.

Van den  Eynden bought his trailer for $5,000 right after he got notice he was losing his old home.

“I wanted something that I could immediately move into. … I took a lot of time looking for an apartment and it’s ridiculous. Prices are just scary through the roof.”

Neither the province nor the city appears to have any interest in opening RV sites.

In an emailed statement, Max Chauvin – the city’s director of housing and homelessness – said that Shubie Campground is supposed to be a stopgap for the colder months.  The city and the park manager provide electricity, water, garbage and waste collection. Chauvin said questions about options for housing and shelter should go to the province.

SaltWire contacted Community Services, the provincial department supporting the Shubie project. A spokesperson said RV parks would be a question for the municipality.

That’s not good enough, says Van den  Eynden.

“We’re in a housing crisis,” he said. “There’s nothing available for people like me who are working people. … We’re not down to living in a tent but we can’t find anything suitable either. So where do we go?”