Sky-high rents have forced many Metro Vancouver residents to find creative living arrangements, but holing up in a storage locker might just take the cake.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what one Vancouver man, who asked to be identified only as Michael, felt he had to do after returning from a two-month trip hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.
Unable to quickly find housing, Michael said he was getting ready to live in his car when he had the idea to move into his U-Haul locker on Marine Drive.
"All my stuff was in storage, I had to put it there because I had to give up my apartment to leave for so long," Michael said. "When I came back I found I was going in and out of my storage locker getting stuff."
The creative – but illegal – solution only cost him $200 a month, but Michael had to slink around in secret, helping himself to the U-Haul building's bathroom and drinking water after hours.
A YouTube video he uploaded of his temporary home, showcasing his working toaster oven and 4K TV, has become a hit online, racking up hundreds of thousands of views.
He acknowledges not all of his viewers are fans, however.
"I know that doing something like staying in a storage locker is pretty controversial, and I knew building it the way I did would generate some sort of buzz," he said.
Some commenters have raised safety concerns, noting that if something were to have caught fire he could have been trapped, but Michael said he feels his set-up was relatively safe.
It didn't last, however. U-Haul told CTV News that staff caught Michael and immediately evicted him from the storage building in November.
"U-Haul has processes and procedures in place to detect anyone attempting to break the law and live in one of its storage units," spokesman Jeff Lockridge said in a statement.
Michael has since moved into a West End apartment building. But despite once again living in a conventional home, he has some decidedly unconventional plans for his new space.
"I plan to build a rock-climbing gym in here so we'll see how that turns out,” he said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Penny Daflos
