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

“I live in a hostel near the Downtown Eastside. It’s a pretty crazy place to be.

I first came to Vancouver on the 6^th of November, 2015. I remember the date. It took me four days to arrive from Montreal—I crossed the whole of Canada by bus. I first decided to come here because my best friend told me about the place, and that nice people lived there. I needed a vacation, so I was like, 'Sure, I’ll come for a month!' It’s been seven months now, and I’m still here.

I chose the hostel because it’s the cheapest place in all Vancouver. It’s only $10 for a bed. I didn’t look for an apartment when I first arrived, because it was only meant to be a vacation at first. And now I’ve found I actually really enjoy living with people here. You get a lot of free stuff, like cigarettes and food. And it’s nice to meet different individuals that have different kinds of mindsets. We share things on a lot of levels.

But you live with the consequences of the cheapness. There are cockroaches. There’s bed bugs. There are mice that eat your food. Often there’s poo around the toilet seats, and I’ve definitely stepped in some on the floor when I’ve gone to the shared washrooms at night.

Some really sketchy stuff goes on around here too. Once when I was living in the dorm, I used to share a bunk with this girl from Russia. She brought her pimp up into the room to smoke crack on the bed. The guy was very scary. At first they used to do it subtly in the bathroom, but then I think they just stopped caring and had no problem with doing it so openly. It was really uncomfortable to be around.

I have a private room now though. I can have all my stuff out of my suitcase, and I don’t have to hide anything in my bed. I can finally do what I want, and if that means spending all weekend lying in and watching TV, there’s no one to judge me. Plus I don’t have to be near people smoking crack! The private room is definitely more expensive—it’s $800 a month. But I split that with my boyfriend, so it’s only $400 for me. Compared to everything in Vancouver, it’s still cheap. You definitely couldn’t get a one-bedroom apartment for that anywhere near Downtown.

To help out with rent I also took a job as the hostel’s cleaning lady, because it meant I could live for free and save money. At that time it was great—I actually had some cash in the bank. But it didn’t last too long. I was working two part-time jobs as well as cleaning the whole hostel, and it got to a point where I just couldn’t do it anymore. It was so disgusting. The worst part was the toilets. I couldn’t just amp myself up to get out the mop.

I’ve been lucky in terms of things being stolen, too. Items mainly go missing from the boys’ rooms. Laptops, phones, things like that. Out of all 150 people at the hostel, only about four are girls. So the dorm is always half-empty. None of the girls have lived in the hostel as long as me—two people stayed for half a year, and there always seemed to be one random girl who’d come and leave after about two days. I think that no one took anything of mine because they had less access.

I’m leaving in a few months for South America. I wanted to head earlier, but money made me stay. Will I ever go back to Vancouver? I don’t think so. I love this city, but I don’t think I’ll ever live here for good. It’s been an adventure, and I’m really lucky to have met the great people that I’m now friends with. But it’s time to move on.”