“Renters of Vancouver” takes an intimate look at how the city's millennials are dealing with the housing crisis.

“I live with my mom and siblings in a townhouse at Arbutus and King Eds. It’s a two-bedroom house, but five of us live there. My mother and my sister have the proper bedrooms, and there’s a basement too, which my two brothers share. But the basement isn’t big enough to divide into three. So I don’t get a room.

If you open the front door and look immediately to your right—that’s my ‘space’. I think it was meant to be a dining area. There’s a small divider—the kind that people change clothes behind—and then there’s a curtain that blocks my room off from the kitchen. That’s it. Altogether, it’s probably about the size of one king bed.

There’s no walls. I’m just going to be open with you. I have sex with my girlfriend anyway. With my room, I’ve learned to be an open guy. They put me here, they get to see what they get to see! They hear what they hear. You want to look into my room during times like that? Go ahead! The divider’s not very tall!

When I first moved in, I was a bit immature about the space. I made everyone knock first on the divider to pretend it was a door. And I also play-acted that I couldn’t see that anybody over the screen. I was like, ‘Those are walls! I can’t see you!’ I’ve got a bit more used to it now though.

The worst part of living here is that when people cook, my room stinks—along with all my clothes—because it’s right beside the kitchen. Everyone does whatever they want in the house, and when people are hanging out in the kitchen and living room, it really affects me because I can’t study or sleep through the noise. They’re good people, but they’re not very considerate. I have to be the one that compromises.

I plan on moving out on my own one day, but it’s really expensive. I work two part-time jobs, but I’m still at university, and I don’t have enough money. My brothers are aged 26 and 24, and they don’t make enough yet either. Until then, we’re all under the same roof. I think that makes my mom happy, at least.”

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