‘Where am I going to be?’: Kelowna supportive housing residents seek answers
Global News
The uncertainty of finding a home after losing a community is a lot to bear for an already vulnerable population, residents of Hadgraft Wilson Place say.
Nicole Saebels never imagined that she’d spend her golden years worrying about whether she’d be able to keep a roof over her head.
But residents of a Kelowna, B.C., supportive housing building now know all too well that life takes unexpected turns.
“In three months I am going to be 90 and where am I going to be?” Saebels said. “In the middle of the night … I can’t fall back asleep thinking where am I going to end up.”
She’s not alone in this plight. Saebels is one of 84 residents of the ill-fated Hadgraft Wilson Place. Once lauded as a saviour for Kelowna men and women with limited housing options due to their range of cognitive and physical challenges, it’s become a nightmare for those who called it home.
They were all forced out of their units on April 1, when cracks in the building’s foundation prompted an evacuation. Those cracks are believed to have been caused by the construction of a massive UBC Okanagan tower next door.
At first, that meant they were going from hotel room to hotel room while the organization that ran the building, Pathways Abilities Society, scrambled to keep them housed. Then Okanagan College stepped in, offering up its newly opened dorms as an interim solution.
With less than six weeks until that solution expires, UBC Properties Trust has given households of Hadgraft Wilson Place $12,000 to help them through the next transition.
People who lived there have said they appreciate the help, but it may not be enough in a city that’s known for limited rental vacancies and staggeringly high rates. According to the digital marketplace Zumper, as of May, the median rent for all bedroom counts and property types in Kelowna is $2,400.
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