Meet The Van Community SLEEPING in -40°C Canadian WINTERS. How They Survive

We've all seen it. All the broken down RVs and camper vans that are scattered all over the city streets in Canada and the USA. A lot of these vehicles you know that they haven't moved in a very long time. They've squatted and made themselves right at home. And for most people in those scenarios that can't afford to do their vehicle repairs or to get fuel, this is the last home they'll have because once the city comes by and tows their RV away, they've now become officially homeless. But today I want to tell you a different side of the story. So I myself am a vehicle dweller full-time but I move my vehicle every single day. I don't squat. I move around and I travel. And this shot here is a Walmart parking lot that I filmed in British Columbia, Canada at the beginning of my summer travel season. Sure most of them are travelers that move around every day. But there was a handful of them that never moved at all. Kind of squatting. And when you see this stuff on the news, they seem to flip the narrative to whatever they want. Look that's me. They called me an RV squatter. I don't live in an RV. I live in that van right there. My van's changed a lot. That's what it used to look like. But they did. They had a guy come by and they filmed me and it was a really nice good positive story. We shared lots of fun stuff and good things and it was great. But the second it hit the TV, it was over. They made me look like I was a just a homeless bum that was mooching off the cities. They flipped the narrative to whatever story that they wanted to tell. So today I want to tell you another story about an amazing community of vehicle dwellers that live in an extremely cold place here in Canada in Calgary, Alberta. There's a bunch of them that live here in these icy cold Canadian winters and have created a little bit of a van community. I want to introduce you to the crew from Squatter City in Calgary. This is a story about family and community. Yeah Bruce you've been down here for a long time. I always hear how many years back that was. Two years ago. And you've been in the very same spot. Pretty well yeah yeah I've been here for a long time now. And some of the people that do come by here I've probably met somewhere throughout the city and heard a lot of like rough stories from people and you know I don't like to hear anybody down and out let alone getting vandalized with their home. So I always advise them to kind of come by this spot and join our little community. We try to all look after each other a little bit look after each other's stuff at night and if anybody has like issues with their vehicle we all kind of band together and help as much as we can. So do you guys have like is there a crew of you guys you see regular down here? Yeah yeah there's a few definite regulars yeah yeah and it comes in handy during the winters because as you guys know Calgary is a cold city. So how long have you been out here in the same in the same area? In this area about three years now I think I'm coming on year four. Yeah I remember the last time I was out here you your vehicle was not movable at all. No yeah there was a lot wrong with it. So you were just sitting in the same spot for like how long? I think three to four months I couldn't move at all. Wow yeah and it was during like the part of the winter so it was real rough. Yeah yeah so what's what's the winters like out here? Brutal they are absolutely brutal like without our community you know I would see a lot more people suffer a lot harder. Yeah yeah like when like I'm thankful enough to have the diesel heater that was given to me by you but other than that before that it was propane it was buddy heaters it was anything we can do to keep warm. Yeah and now that I have this I always advise it to other people even if it's just you need to get you warm. Yeah but yeah watching other people like my friend Corey he lives in his Honda Pilot and so it's very limited you can't run propane in those smaller rigs and sometimes having this community even just to come warm up and go back to your own home. Yeah it's nice. So do you guys usually like park together when you guys are down here? Yeah we try to yeah definitely to if anything goes wrong it's we're a knock away you know there's a few times now I've woken up to panic knocks on my door and had to come to the rescue but I guess they were all the community here and we all try and look after each other yeah so it's it's nice. My name is Bruce and I live in one of Canada's coldest cities that we've named Squatter City and this is my home that I've been living in for the last few years. It's a thousand dollar junker van but it's gotten me through a lot of hard times and a lot of harsh harsh winters because living in this city and enduring the cold is absolutely no joke like one mistake one heater goes down if you're not packed up proper you might not wake up the next morning so we've kind of assembled a little community here to help each of us survive through the winter and the winters like I say are no joke some of them are absolutely brutal when it hits minus 48 you better be prepared. Minus 48? Yeah. Degrees Celsius? Yes. Holy crap. Yeah it was minus 48 last winter and my heater plugged up on me and I had to get out and underneath diesel pouring on my chest try and pull it out so I can clean it up get it going again before I can actually feel heat. That turns into like a life or death situation at that point. It really was it really was and it was late at night when it went down so you know you get the thing where you don't want to bother people everybody's sleeping and you're trying to do it on your own and you know when your fingers lose feeling it's it's a scary scary time because you can't just hop back in your home and warm up and go and try it again you know you're you're stuck in that cold temperature every time you open that van door you lose your heat it's it's scary sometimes yeah so having the community around us you know it's it's a big part of how we survive out here. Yeah. So you want to tell them the story why they call you Junior? Yeah so a lot of you probably know me as Junior from the guy holding the camera right now he forgot my name when we were working on his van a lot and deemed me the name Junior and it just kind of stuck. I couldn't remember if it was Bruce Brian Bryce I'm like I don't remember I'm like we're calling him Junior. And it stuck really well so I've got people that even come up to me and hey are you Junior? So so now he just goes by Bruce Van Life Junior. Yeah so if you guys ever want to look me up I'm on YouTube you can see some of the helping hands that we lend it around here to keep surviving and also some of the really brutal brutal nights and winters like I think it was last year the year before my radiator froze on me and only for him or Ruth being near me you know I couldn't even I couldn't warm up for a second I had to I had to hop in her vehicle she was nice enough to let me sit there warm my hands up and then go back. And that's the good thing about having neighbors around you you know what I mean you can go to their home and warm up. Yeah. Especially at minus 48. Yeah it's it's no joke like a lot of the situations even I've been in just sitting here if I didn't have the community around me you know it yeah it's life or death right yeah like I've even had a subscriber of mine from Vancouver email me and you know he would love to come out here and try it all out I simply emailed him back and said brother listen I've seen a few of your videos and you're not prepared it is dangerous out here especially summers are beautiful lots of sun but winter time comes and if you're not prepared you could be in some real danger but for the most part we're all kind of friendly. Friendliest guys I know. Hey Bruce how are you? Pretty good and yourself? I'm good. This is my friend Tony. Oh yeah how are you man? How you doing man? I'm pretty good. Yeah welcome welcome to uh Drupal City. Aka Squatter City I hear. Squatter City. Yeah awesome. Hey do you mind if we share maybe a piece of your story about sure about living in your van and stuff out here in the cold winters? Yeah sure. Awesome. Bruce thank you bro. No worries. I really appreciate it man. I'll go see if I can find some other people. Yeah that'd be great dude thank you. There is a lot of people sleeping on their vehicles down here. Hi my name is Big Z Van Life so I live in Calgary like 13 years now and I start living in this mini van like six years or something like that but I start full-time. It started April 10th so I did not experience the cold weather right now but I want to experience because I'm very excited to sleep on my mini van for like minus 50 years. So you're coming into your first winter? Yeah this is my first winter living in my mini van so I'm very excited for that because I met a lot of people here. I met Bruce. He's a good guy. This is my mini van and yeah make a video live streaming. It's every Friday I do a singing. I have a mini concert like six hours on it. Inside your van? Inside my van. Yeah yeah so yeah if you want to check out my channel it's Big Z Van Life. So I think we will survive because I think we will help each other. We will help each other this coming winter because this life is like you know we need to help each other. We need to help each other right so and by the way I want to say hi to my three sons. Yeah it's Juan, CJ and Simon. Hey I love you man. I love you man. Oh that's beautiful man. Yeah yeah. Thanks Em. Thanks for sharing your van man. I really really appreciate this man. No problem. I'll close the door so you're not cold in there. I can see you starting to shiver. I appreciate it man. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah we love you man. Thanks man. All I could see is feet. Hey everybody so this one I do know this is Ruth. She's been around my channel for a long time. How you doing Ruth? I'm good. So we're running around here talking to some people that have been living right here in what Bruce would call squatter city and we're just kind of talking about like what what it's like out here in the winters. You got some time? It's scary. Yeah. It's cold. You don't want to mess with winter. It's you got to be prepared. When my heaters broke down a couple of times I've had to seek shelter elsewhere. I've used electric heater and had to plug in in the beginning and then I thought I don't like being plugged in. I don't like being on grid and so yeah I followed you chrome on the wave three. Yeah. Just couldn't keep up. Yeah and it worked for me. The wave three on the west coast it worked. Yeah it was so cold. So then I used the wave three and plugged the heater in on the really cold nights. Yeah. And then I thought well okay if I double the heat and get a wave six that should work. It didn't. It just couldn't keep up. Minus 40. It's a tin can. You can't keep up. Minus 40 is a lot man. Yeah and then after my wave heaters I went to my first diesel heater and it was installed so it was up off the floor and the the fuel filter and line were inside and it failed and then I had diesel in the back. Just just pulling? Yeah I had a pool of diesel in the stone gold cubby. Yeah. And I had the double seat still in and it was in the cubby and so my head is here and I'm breathing all that diesel. The pool of diesel. It was it was bad and then I met Bruce first and then Mark and they took one look at that and they said we need to do something and so. No kidding. So they they saved my life and they cleaned up the diesel took the seat out and said what do you want to do with the seat and I said throw it out because never gonna get the diesel out but it was just dripping with diesel. Yeah. And so they tossed it in the bin um and then they Mark uh and Bruce installed it properly right on the floor where all the lines were going out. My first diesel heater lasted me say two seasons two winters. That's pretty good. Which isn't bad for the cheap ones. Yeah. And then it was the fan bearing that was going on it. So. Out of all the things that's pretty good. Yeah and so but it was failing and getting error codes so I ordered a new one and I got Mark to install that for me and it lasted a couple months. It didn't last very long. It was just gunked right up. What I did is is I got a general components one at Polar Mobility and they installed it and I purchased it for I think it was about 1400 installed and they had to drop the fuel tank and tapped into my fuel line. Yeah. So nice not to have to carry extra fuel. Oh yeah 100%. Like whether it's propane I mean that's just a bomb. Yeah. And it was in the back if somebody rear ends me. Yeah and that's why I went with the gasoline version one because I'm like why have an extra tank. Yeah. You know what I mean on a cold night you run out of gas diesel and metal Yeah and you know not every gas station has diesel. Yeah. And there's a couple of times I was out of diesel and I had to drive around the city to find. So in the winter time do you shut your heater off? No. No. So I mean unless I'm flying for vacation and I'm gonna be gone. So ideally you turn your heater on approximately what month? November. So November it's on and sometimes it's on for how long? Weeks and weeks. Weeks at a time. Yeah like I mean I just don't turn it off unless I go away on an airplane somewhere. Yeah there's more than once that I saw Bruce and Tamara just freezing in the van like it's so cold. Yeah. And so I said get in the front I was in the back had the heater on ran the car and let them warm up and went and got them some chili and hot coffee. See and that's that's what that's why I wanted to film this stuff is like you get the little community around here that when someone's cold they come in another van they warm up and they got someone like you that takes them out gets them something warm to eat. Yeah. It's cool. It's you know it's such a great community I think we have the best community ever right here. Yeah. Everybody helps everybody it doesn't matter what it is somebody's got the skills to do whatever it is. Yeah. And um and so it's it's awfully awfully nice. Yeah. Like I don't think I've ever been in a community like this living in a regular house. Right. Yeah. The love. That's cool. And we sit out on the lawn when our lawn chairs in the summer. Yeah. Just visit. Yeah. Thanks Ruth I appreciate this. You're welcome. Loving on each other. It's just so full of love. Yeah. So I don't know it's better than any community I've ever lived in. And that's crazy to think right? It is. Who would have guessed? You know like seven years ago when I thought oh it might be fun living in a van and put my furniture into storage for a couple years. Yeah. I'm not moving back into a house so why keep the... And then to find a little community sitting on the side of a road somewhere. Yeah. I said really if you're by yourself out here. Yeah. Would you love it? Yeah. You know you need a community I don't care where you are you need a community. Yeah. And this is one of the best communities. Yeah. That's a beautiful thing. Yeah. It is. And it started because of you. Because I met these guys because of you. Yeah. I love that stuff. Just a little YouTube channel like mine. Yeah. I love that. That's beautiful. Yeah. But that's how I recognized Bruce the first time. Yeah. We waved at each other and I said are you Bruce? Junior. Yeah. Junior told him the story on how he got the name Junior. Yeah. Because I couldn't remember his name. And now he's getting older. Yeah. He's still Junior. He's still Junior. Well once he got the nickname the nickname stuck for good. Yeah. It's been really beautiful to hear all these guys stories and uh Bruce said he found someone else that's willing to talk to me so uh let's go and meet somebody else. Okay crow. So this next guy he comes and goes a little bit. He's a little hard of hearing but a really good guy and a good part of the community. His dog Scoob's always hanging there to his side. Younger. Is your daddy home? How you doing buddy? Is your daddy home? Hi. Hi. How's it going Rich? Yeah. Yeah Matt and uh what are you guys named? Corey. Corey came and when I did the first break. Yeah. And then Bruce came with the second. Yeah. So so that was good. No matter how many of us it takes we'll get you fixed. Yeah. Yeah that's it. You came home I couldn't get it so yeah. Size 12 work boot we'll get it fixed. Yeah. Everything's all tipped over. If you want to go in I'll follow you. Every time you move here just a minute I'll maybe I'll find a light. This is our bed. Oh okay. Yeah. There's another light, washroom, pantry. Perfect. It's a 1993. Yeah. So it was cheap so that's where I got. And the rent I saved, paid for it, paid for a generator. Yeah. And paid for my humidifier. Yeah. And I still saved a couple thousand dollars. That's always great when you get to save that rent money and put it towards something else that you can continue to live with right. That's the same because I live in a van too that's the same thing happened with me like saving all that rent money allowed me to continue to add to my van and Yeah. I was putting on my credit card. Yeah. Trying to get that paid off. Yeah. Yeah so no no everybody's really friendly here. I've never been in a place that even the campgrounds have been this friendly. Yeah and it's crazy right on the side of a road beside a Walmart and there's like this community of people that live in their vehicles that are all taking care of each other. We're all together during the day and everybody sits around and yeah it's really good. Yeah it's a beautiful thing like it's a I haven't heard a story like this in a community of vehicle dwellers yet. This is the first time. Well even if you're living in an apartment you don't know your neighbors. That's right. But here you know you know so everybody's really good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I love that about it. That's why I wanted to bring my camera out today because I thought the story about everybody around here was just super beautiful. Oh yeah. Yeah it was really good. It's it's nice to have a little community here right on the side of a road. Yeah he goes to everybody. You do? No you're not a friendly puppy are you? No. He'll be 10 in February. Well it's nice to meet you man. Thanks for showing us your home. I feel pretty honored that this little crew of vehicle dwellers opened up their doors to us and shared a little piece of their story. I think it's incredible that they've chosen to stay here through ice cold Canadian winters instead of going to the west coast or going down south for the winter in the desert where it's warmer. These guys have found a safe community amongst each other right here in a cold winter climate. Finding community on the side of a road.