Opinion: Let’s turn retired cruise ships into affordable housing in Vancouver

Carnival Radiance cruise ship (formerly known as the Carnival Victory. (Shutterstock)

Written for Daily Hive Urbanized by Alistair Vigier, who is the CEO of Clearway, an online platform that connects the public with over 500,000 lawyers.

I had an idea the other day while I was out and about.

Canada is going through a housing crisis. Not only is the price of housing outrageous, there’s just not enough of it.

Then I thought, what about all those massive cruise ships? They have thousands of cabins on board and all kinds of other cool features as well.

And if they are like anything else in the world they have a best-before date so what happens to them after? Turned into scrap?

You might also like:

So, why not permanently dock a few somewhere — extend the lifespan of these vessels — to help address the housing crisis?

It wouldn’t be cheap, but what is?

And I’m sure there would be a bunch of hoops to jump through, but that’s not new either.

I did some research and found out I wasn’t the first local guy to have this idea.

Brian Calder, a former Vancouver city councillor, proposed the very same issue in a letter to the editor of the Nanaimo News Bulletin on September 2, 2023.

“What about purchasing a retired cruise ship and drydock it on the shore? It could act as temporary housing for 1,000 people in single-occupancy rooms. Units are fully serviced with heat, light, kitchens, recreation, laundry, etc.,” he wrote.

“Relatively instant housing is a temporary solution to taking the homeless out of the communities’ established neighbourhoods while exerting some control over their activity and health. Okay, now let’s hear why it can’t work, followed by your suggested alternative. And keep in mind that jails and hospitals cost far more than my suggestion.”

Most of the problem with implementing this idea or any idea is usually because of government interference, he said.

“Building and providing housing has historically and increasingly been restricted by our very own governments. They have been adding regulation upon regulation and restriction upon restriction for decades,” he continued.

“To the point that the price has been driven so high that fewer and fewer can afford to purchase and many cannot even find or meet the rental rates in today’s market. We need to quit building castles in the air and start building foundations on the ground.”

He further stated that government rules and regulations have become so complex that they show zero initiative.

“The answer is ‘we can’t do that because’ and that ‘because’ is another regulation that they put in place. Make no mistake, the government can do anything it wants and does. If they put a regulation in then they can take it out if it becomes an impediment to progress. But that is never done,” he added.

“Whenever I have what I think is a good idea I only think of the positive side and why it will work. Then I take it to my friends in government and tell them the idea and they do all my negative thinking for me and tell me why it will never work.”

I like this guy. He is so right.

Cruise ships are little floating cities. Sure there will be issues that crop up. Where there are human beings there are issues, but this will solve so many issues that are only getting worse in our society every day.

The ships are already there. They’re going to get towed away, chopped up, and sold for scrap sooner or later anyway but they don’t need to be.

People can live there instead of having nowhere to live at all.

If nothing else, why not just talk about it and hammer out the details? It wasn’t all that long ago that Canada had a population of 33 million. Now we’re over 40 million and climbing.

It’s time that we get this thing rolling, or floating to be more accurate.

You might also like: