Eviction underlines challenge for tiny houses

August 11, 2022



A small-home community has run into bylaw infractions resulting in its eviction from a site on Vancouver Island, reports the Victoria Times Colonist.
Bryce Knudtson lives in a tiny home in B.C.’s Capital Regional District on southern Vancouver Island. He pays $650 a month for the pad, sewer and electrical hookups for the small house on wheels that he and his father built in Saskatoon two years ago.
Saige Lancaster, the owner of the two-acre ­Metchosin property has established a micro-community of nine people living in three tiny homes on wheels, an RV and a converted bus.
Lancaster said with the ability to own or even rent a home out of reach for many people, providing an affordable place for housing—such as tiny homes—seemed like a great idea.
But on August 31, 2022, Knudtson and the others are being evicted by the District of Metchosin because Lancaster is contravening the district’s bylaws which allow for one primary and one accessory dwelling per lot. She was initially given an eviction notice in January 2022 after Metchosin received a complaint.
Lancaster is asking for an emergency measure to stave off the evictions until suitable housing can be found for her tenants, but that isn’t likely to happen.
In June 2021 on Salt Spring Island, the Islands Trust passed a resolution that prevented action on illegal dwellings until there was more safe and affordable housing available.
Lancaster and Knudtson have a social media group called B.C. Housing Crisis and have a petition calling on governments to act on affordable housing and place a moratorium on evictions from illegal dwellings.