Residents of evacuated Kelowna, B.C. subsidized housing consider their futures

While cracks in the foundation of the building are the issue many are talking about and working to rectify, it's less tangible issues weighing on them.

James Hadgraft was proud to live in the subsidized housing building in Kelowna, B.C., that bears his name.

He’d greet people as they came and went, showcasing the “resilience and kindness” that helped define the community at Hadgraft Wilson Place, his friend Stan Biggs said.

On Tuesday, as James and other tenants followed through with the evacuation order issued by the City of Kelowna on Sunday, he was still mustering that community spirit for what some could be the last day at the place he called home.

“At first I was sad, but I am OK now,” James said while standing next to Biggs whose son, like James, has Down syndrome and has called the building home for the better part of a year.

While cracks in the foundation of the building are the issue many are talking about and working to rectify, Biggs explained for the residents there, it’s the less-tangible issues that are weighing on them.

Hadgraft Wilson Place provides safe rental options for people with limited incomes but was also built with mindfulness toward those with a vast spectrum of challenges, both cognitive and physical.  For example, eight of the one-bedroom units are completely wheelchair-accessible.

Above all else, however, it’s been a place of inclusion that many of its struggled struggled to find before its doors opened.

“So many of them right now are sitting in their own individual pods, in restaurants with nothing, not knowing (what’s next), not even having cab fare,” Biggs said.