The Tofino municipal council has decided to let the Crab Apple Campground stay open for another six months.
Crab Apple is a technically residential campground. Anyone who stays there has to have a job in Tofino. It got started because the housing crunch was so bad that workers need to live in vans to keep their jobs.
Some people have lived there for years.
But the place is only legal because it has a Temporary Use Permit. Crab Apple got its first permit in 2016, and another one in 2018. After that, they weren’t supposed to get any more.
Crab Apple‘s owner, Matthieu Amin, applied for a new permit anyway.
Getting approval to keep the place open for another six months wasn’t easy. At the beginning of August, an inspection noted that the kitchen area is unhealthy and there are fire hazards.
The council had lots of concerns. But they also don’t like the idea of kicking 44 people out of their homes.
So the council has given them a six-month permit to clean up their act. If the campground can meet the conditions of the new permit, then the council will look at giving Crab Apple a new, longer permit.
Affordable housing has been a huge issue for years in Tofino and Ucluelet. Lots of people live in campers and RVs.
Both towns are trying new things, like housing co-ops, to try to fix the housing problem.
But those solutions take years to build. So in the meantime, Crab Apple gives people a place to live right now. It just needs to be cleaner and safer for the people who live there.
