Former ‘middle class’ business owner has slept in his van for a year

Ten years ago, Garry Sibley was a part business owner living in a house in New Brighton. Now the 63-year-old sleeps on a piece of scrap foam in a small van.

This has been his life for the last year.

Sibley has outfitted the back of its 2001 Holden Combo with a small gas cooker and 12V fridge, though it doesn’t yet have the battery capacity to run it.

It has a small gas heater and all the lights are battery powered.

Their meals are mostly canned food and cheap meat.

“Chicken and sausages, because they are the cheapest. But the cheap ones really suck. You have to spend a lot to get good hot dogs these days, ”he said.

The scene is in sharp contrast to his previous life.

He and his ex-wife lived in South New Brighton, but the earthquakes damaged the house.

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The earthquake ended the Fleetcare Canterbury panel bumping and spray paint business, in which Sibley worked and was a major shareholder. The building was tagged in red and the company was decommissioned in May 2013.

The couple divorced about eight years ago, but he continued to live in the damaged house. In that time he fixed parquet floors, plastered walls and renovated the kitchen.

Last year his wife wanted to put it on the market and it sold for just $ 120,000 due to the remaining damages. This only covered the mortgage.

Sibley kept her clothes and cars.

For four months he slept sitting upright in the passenger seat of his ute. Your parking spot in New Brighton by the estuary.

Then he moved into the old work truck, parking in Sumner.

“I had no money, but I was not going to rehab. That would have really made me lose my mind. “

“I got along well with everyone present. Dog walkers can confirm that. “

He’s been in the truck ever since. During the day, he and a friend helped fix an associate’s house.

The associate would give Sibley $ 20 or $ 40 here and there, but mostly he worked for free. Sibley could use the house facilities during the day.

The building was in no condition to house anyone other than the owner, Sibley said. It was full of old electronics and auto parts and was in poor condition.

“People say that if you are out of these places, why don’t you live in the bedrooms? You should see the status of these houses. It was old, let it go bad, and had a chicken running around it. It was like a chicken coop. “

The man died six weeks ago, so Sibley now lives outside of his friend Steve Parker’s Linwood home.

Parker’s house has the remains of old vehicles strewn across the lawns, prompting complaints from neighbors.

Parker said Sibley was helping him fix some of them and the two worked together reviving old trailers and selling them.

“It keeps me motivated. He helped me fix the house, he was taking new steps down and we cut seven trees, “said Parker.

Despite her situation, Sibley did not want to move into social housing. There are 1232 people on the Christchurch social housing registry.

“It would be to separate them from families and people who really need it and want to feel independent.”

This was also partly due to his pride, he said.

“I was middle class, I had my own business and I did my thing. I was short of money, but I never wanted anything.

“Now I have no money or anything else. Becoming a bum really gets you, when you get out of your truck, people walk by and look at you. “

Sibley has depression and diabetes and relies on her benefit of about $ 300 a week for food.

You have had criminal convictions in the past. In 2001, he was charged with assaulting a colleague in a work cafeteria and was fined $ 500 because the judge said there was some degree of provocation. He had previously been sentenced to four years in prison for car theft and related crimes, which he still denies.

Now you want to stay positive.

“It’s y… of course, I didn’t expect my life to be like this. But you can’t complain. It has happened and you go ahead and fight. “