It might look like a coffin on wheels, but a homeless man in Vernon, B.C. is just happy to have a warm place to sleep.
"I cover it up and I get in it and sleep in it,” Kurt Stairs told CTV Vancouver as he showed off his tiny mobile home.
“I've had at least up to four people in it at night."
Measuring less than two metres square, Stairs’ crate is insulated and features an electric heater and lighting. To stay warm, the man simply needs to find a place to plug it in at night.
But while the crate might offer a welcome escape from a bitter B.C. winter, Vernon’s bylaw enforcement officers have been waging something of a cold war against Stairs.
“We were getting complaints within the downtown core, because it was set up on Main Street,” Clint Kanester, who runs Vernon’s bylaw enforcement unit, told CTV Vancouver.
Bylaw officers have asked Stairs to move his crate several times over concerns about being on private property as well as his choices of where to plug it in.
"We did make the owners aware and make them aware that he was, as well, stealing power," Kanester said.
Authorities say there is space in local shelters, but Stairs would rather stay in his tiny home, which was a gift from a total stranger.
"I just got it Christmas Eve,” Stairs said. “It was the best gift I had for Christmas -- the only gift I got for Christmas. Yeah, it was nice of him."
With files from CTV Vancouver
