Farktastic: I see subby knows fark all about electricity...

They make 50' extension cords. Half a dozen indoor 6-footers chained together should be fine. There's even an 8 outlet surge protector at the end to power the space heater and Coleman griddle.

macadamnut: Only the homely are homeless.

Dum-dum-dum-dumdy-doo-wah
Ooh-yay-yay-yay-yeah
Oh-oh-oh-oh-wah
Only the homely

Only the homely (dum-dum-dum-dumdy-doo-wah)
Know the way I feel tonight (ooh-yay-yay-yay-yeah)
Only the homely (dum-dum-dum-dumdy-doo-wah)
Know this feelin aint right (dum-dum-dum-dumdy-doo-wah)

That's way too much for a tool shed in Kelowna. Look at the junk around it. Sure, some of it counts as insulation, but even so, $100, $150, tops unless she removes that pile of boards and improves the landscaping.

Of course, in Vancouver or Surrey, BC, that rent would look way cheap. There are people making $95,000 a year and living in worse in the oil patch in Alberta. In London, England, garages barely bigger than that toolshed have sold for GBP150,000.

Location, location, location. But the yard looks like a dump, so it is keeping rents down.

solokumba: campers are not homes

see pic

[www.yesmagazine.org image 300x400]


gerrrr!

Let me grab my hammer.

UsikFark: Half a dozen indoor 6-footers chained together should be fine.

kinky!

UsikFark: Farktastic: I see subby knows fark all about electricity...

They make 50' extension cords. Half a dozen indoor 6-footers chained together should be fine. There's even an 8 outlet surge protector at the end to power the space heater and Coleman griddle.

10/10 A+

I hope the kids at home are reading this post and taking notes.

brantgoose: That's way too much for a tool shed in Kelowna. Look at the junk around it. Sure, some of it counts as insulation, but even so, $100, $150, tops unless she removes that pile of boards and improves the landscaping.

Of course, in Vancouver or Surrey, BC, that rent would look way cheap. There are people making $95,000 a year and living in worse in the oil patch in Alberta. In London, England, garages barely bigger than that toolshed have sold for GBP150,000.

Location, location, location. But the yard looks like a dump, so it is keeping rents down.

My van down by the river is almost $900 a month because of the waterfront view.

Iit really does seem like our government goes out of it's way to kick people when they're down on some fronts.
There's a point where the almighty dollar needs to step aside, and let basic human compassion lead or find a better solution to the issue at hand. Or, at least use turning a blind eye as a tool for humanity rather than corruption..

Wolfling: What's the world coming to, when we can't get two people to spell to too well.

Subby's too stupid (or drunk) to deserve a greenlight.

Any hobo worth his salt knows you don't pay more than $100 a month for a shed that doesn't have a minimum of a 12 gauge extension cord, and a GFCI receptacle located IN THE SHED.

Some of these unscrupulous shedlords will try to give you a 14, or even a 16 gauge cord, with no ground fault protection, and tell you it's OK to run your hot plate, your blow dryer, and your phone charger at the same time.

/It's high time these people were called out.

bearded clamorer: Any hobo worth his salt knows you don't pay more than $100 a month for a shed that doesn't have a minimum of a 12 gauge extension cord, and a GFCI receptacle located IN THE SHED.

Some of these unscrupulous shedlords will try to give you a 14, or even a 16 gauge cord, with no ground fault protection, and tell you it's OK to run your hot plate, your blow dryer, and your phone charger at the same time.

/It's high time these people were called out.

They're the worst kind!

Somaticasual: Iit really does seem like our government goes out of it's way to kick people when they're down on some fronts.
There's a point where the almighty dollar needs to step aside, and let basic human compassion lead or find a better solution to the issue at hand. Or, at least use turning a blind eye as a tool for humanity rather than corruption..

Well...here's the problem.

Suppose the city "turns a blind eye" as you say, and then there was a fire, the homeless people died or were seriously injured and ended up in the hospital. Then the woman gets sued on behalf of the homeless couple for allowing them to live in unsafe conditions, and the city gets sued for failing to enforce safety regulations. Possibly the woman's neighbors sue as well for the violations, plus housing code violations (unregulated residence, etc.), health code violations (where were they dumping their waste? the dogs' waste? what about cooking?), etc.

Housing codes exist for a reason. Mostly public safety. I agree, the woman here was only trying to do the right thing, and the city really should waive the fine. But some people would be more than happy to fleece desperate people out of money and give them really crappy housing, or not care if they shiat in a bucket and threw it over the neighbor's fence. Sadly, that is why the city can't just let this go. As far as "more compassionate solutions," people are trying to find them. Often they run afoul of the same combination of regulations, idiots who want to make a quick buck, and the NIMBYism that led to the creation of the regulations in the first place.

dantheman195:

Just make sure it is all plugged into a wall outlet that is protected by a Federal Pacific load center. Also knob and tube wiring would add a nice touch.

OMG - house we bought last year that still has knob and tube wiring. Still saving cash to pay for a complete re-wire. Have changed out a couple of outlets and was greeted with fabric-insulated wires. AAAAHHHH! Yay 100 year old house!

esotericelement: "What's this world coming too..."

THIS. The article is based in Canada, so it should've been spelled "tou" as in colour, flavour, etc.

My worst-case doomsday contingency (lose job, wife bails) includes taking $15k and buying a few acres off the beaten path in NW AZ (Kingman/Ash Fork area) and one of those semi-livable sheds at home depot (along these lines). oh and a generator. and guns, guns, guns.

/is it wrong that I kinda WANT to do this?

Fleming described the small building as "a standard type of metal garden shed that you'd get at your local hardware store. It certainly doesn't look like a place for people to be living in."

To The Escape Zeppelin

They weren't homeless until the city kicked them out of their rental. It's clearly better that they wander the street than live in sub par housing.

A lady I know had an old travel trailer on her property that had been unused for years. So when a couple of guys she knew became homeless, she let them stay in it. They were doing day labor plus had construction skills, so they were able to work now and then and were trying to get on their feet. They ran a heavy duty extension cord from her house to the trailer. Knowing about electricity, they used it mainly for lighting, alternating the loads between that and a hot plate. Mostly they cooked outside with an old BBQ with they fueled with the ample dried branches of the many oak trees about.

They ran a hose from her house for water. She let them use her bathroom. They didn't pay rent, but helped her out with the power bill, did repairs for her around her old house, even ran electrical wires to power a window a/c unit someone gave her.

Her house, BTW, was an old wooden one, built some time in the early 50's. She was on Social Security Income. (Meaning darn little.) Also food stamps.

The two guys scavenged for food also, getting things like day old bagels the bagel shop was throwing out, harvesting wilted vegetables from grocery store dumpsters, using the local Poor Pantries when they could.

They shared it all with her. They also fished when they could in the local river.

It was, IMO, a workable symbiotic relationship. They protected her from the many nuts in the neighborhood and fixed things her slumlord landlord wouldn't and she gave them shelter. When winter came, she often let them inside her home, where they slept in her living room. Too risky to run an electric heater in the trailer. Plus the house's electrical system was old.

Eventually, someone from the city observed this and promptly stepped in and told her to get rid of them or provide them with adequate, safe living accommodations, plus they pointed out that it was illegal for a trailer to be lived in on her half acre lot. (Here, to live outside a mobile home park, on land you own, with an anchored mobile home up to spec's, you needed 5 acres. The local leaders decided that ages ago. Just as land values were starting to rise.)

She could face fines of a couple of hundred dollars a day. She had to get rid of the trailer also, since it was considered uninhabitable.

Apparently, it's considered fine for the homeless to be kicked out of structures not up to code and go live in cardboard boxes, abandoned, rotting houses, abandoned buildings, in tents in patches of woods or the very few, very under funded local homeless shelters where the residents will rob and steal from each other than to do as these guys were: living quietly, saving money to get an apartment and working as often as they could plus helping out their benefactor in ways the state and her landlord wouldn't.

So, they moved into the main house for a time and hauled the old trailer to the dumps. Eventually they had to find somewhere else to live because the landlord, noting the additional people INSIDE his property, started demanding higher rent.

He never cared if they lived in the old trailer.

So, when they left, the lady lost a lot of free help which she needed. Plus, with the guys gone, things started vanishing from her yard and home.

In times of economic crisis, governing bodies tend to loose all common sense and compassion. Better for the poor to live in dirt than some place not up to code.

BTW. In my town, if abandoned buildings are discovered to have a homeless group living in them, the city tears them down. Including digging up the foundation.
They also do not contribute to the homeless shelter which has been fighting for years to stay open and to make itself safer.