There has been a lot of talk and some tension in Squamish around people who live in their vehicles, or van lifers.
The District of Squamish does not allow camping within municipal boundaries, including sleeping in one's vehicle.
Sleeping on roads has been prohibited since 2007.
The Squamish Estuary, the Mamquam Forest Service Road and Smoke Bluffs Park are also "no-go" zones for camping.
While it is difficult to quantify how many people actually live in their vans, or vehicles, most estimates are around 200.
Some vehicle residents have noted prejudice they felt locally for living in a vehicle.
Recently, Squamish Chief reporter, Indigo Lemay-Conway, wrote an opinion column about an incident where she was making dinner in her van and men drove by her, telling her to "get a house."
Others have noted the sense of community found among van lifers.
The Squamish Chief polled 574 readers and asked the question: How supportive of van life residents are you?
The poll ran from 8/27/2024 to 9/21/2024. Of the 574 votes, we can determine that 240 are from within the community.
More than 40% of respondents were either very or somewhat supportive of van life.
The full results are as follows:
Results are based on an online study of adult Squamish Chief readers that are located in Squamish. The margin of error - which measures sample variability - is +/- 4.03%, 19 times out of 20.
The Squamish Chief uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.
