this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2024
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He can't afford to rent an apartment. So this man secretly sleeps in an office (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A man in St. John's rents office space, but he doesn't have an office job.

He's an electrician, driving from gig to gig all day. The office is where he sleeps at night, secretly, because he couldn't afford to rent an apartment anywhere in the city. For two months during the frigid Newfoundland and Labrador winter, he lived in his truck. Then, in February, he found an office listed for $450 per month.

"I'm 100 per cent doing this clandestinely," the 37-year-old told CBC News. "I basically have given up on finding anything else."

The average asking price for rent in Canada hit an all-time high of $2,202 per month in May, according to a June report from listing website Rentals.ca.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago

I applaud this guy for making it work. If the system won’t work for you, go around it. Just be cautious cause it’ll fuck you back if it finds out.

[–] Eczpurt 9 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Is there any rules against living in your office rental? In my mind, there's always furniture to some degree in an office that can be slept on. You could probably get a shower and a change room installed. Most usually have a crude kitchen of sorts.

Unless someone comes in after hours and sees you snoozing, I think it'd be easy to keep up appearances.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The situation where a full-time worker still can't find an affordable rental option is becoming more common, said Annie Hodgins, executive director of the Toronto-based non-profit Canadian Centre for Housing Rights.

A recent CBC News analysis of more than 1,000 neighbourhoods across Canada's largest cities found that fewer than one per cent of rentals are both vacant and affordable for the majority of the country's renters.

In October 2023, across the 35 metropolitan areas CBC News analyzed, only 1,400 bachelor or one-bedroom homes were vacant and located in neighbourhoods that full-time minimum-wage workers could afford.

The number of people who work full time and can't afford rent is a "major concern," Aled ab Iorwerth, deputy chief economist of the CMHC, told CBC News.

People will make sacrifices to ensure they can pay their rent, including cutting their budget for food and medication, Hodgins, of the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights, said.

And younger people may struggle to pay their student loans, or delay going back to school or starting families — all to make rent or because of lack of space, she said.

The original article contains 911 words, the summary contains 173 words. Saved 81%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

That's nice if you can get away with it. When I earned too little to afford an apartment, I lived in a car.

[–] Anticorp 2 points 6 months ago

I used to dream of doing this when I was younger and homeless. Sadly, I didn't even have the resources for this. I eventually got on my feet, but it was hard.