London's 10 most read stories in 2023

Here are the 10 most-read stories published on the CBC London website in 2023. These stories were read by hundreds of thousands of people. Feel free to explore them all. 

Kim Springer and her family never thought they'd be living in a camper in a gravel parking lot adjacent to a park in east London, Ont. In April, the Springers, used their predicament to outline the difficulties connected to hidden homelessness and a lack of municipal support, as well as the options. Read their story here.

The 44-year-old owner of an Owen Sound, Ont., restaurant who was in critical condition after a beating outside his restaurant in what police say was a dispute over an unpaid dining bill has died in a London hospital. At publication time, police were still looking for the suspects. Read what's known here.

A London, Ont., man was charged in June with criminal harassment after a photo surfaced online of him allegedly posing for a selfie in the hospital room of a terminally ill man. According to Britt Leroux, the photo shows her father, Andre, and she had recently clashed with the accused online. Read the full story here. 

In March, a pair of real estate agents in London, Ont., who were fired from a realty firm for taking their advertising campaign, "You could do worse," to billboards and social media doubled down on their mantra. Seems like Tristan Squire-Smith, 42, and Johnny Hewerdine, 43, had a message that resonated. Read the story here. 

A London man who hasn't paid rent in two years appeared before Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) for a second time in November, to argue his new landlord wrongly made a change in his payment method and it doesn't accommodate his disability. This story caught the attention of a lot of people. Read why here. 

Stephanie Finlayson of Woodstock, Ont., had been going over her monthly budget in October, trying to find a way to cover costs from food and insurance to fixing or replacing her 2005 Honda Accord. The car had a leaky radiator and 377,000 kilometres on the odometer. She crunched the numbers and what she found made the reality of her financial situation crystal clear. Read more about what Finlayson did next. 

In November, a 45-year-old woman has been sleeping in her vehicle for three months while working full-time and trying to find a new place to live. She told her story from a parking lot not far from London, Ont., where she had parked her vehicle for the night. Since publication, we are happy to report that she found housing. Read how she survived until then by clicking here.  

In February, a couple in Ontario sued over a beach house they say they've never been able to set foot in, alleging the vendor disclosed just three days before their deal closed that the building with "breathtaking million-dollar views" was unsafe for human habitation. Read more about the $2.2-million lawsuit and why it caught the attention of readers. 

It's not a beetle, not a cockroach, and not something you should squash, no matter how many squeeze their way into your home. All through fall and winter this year, CBC London noticed social media posts and questions about a particular type of bug turning up inside homes. Here's what we learned.

Fernanda Santos and Gustavo Pereira of London, Ont., knew the housing market was wildly overpriced in March 2022, but felt pressured to become owners, so they bought a three-bedroom home in the east end for $730,000. They have a variable rate mortgage and though they both have good paying jobs, the $1,600 increase to their payments left them in a bind. Theirs was the most read story on CBC London in 2023.