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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This is 15 per cent higher than the national average and far beyond the fixed incomes of the residents who are now looking for a place to call home.
“We will have to find accommodations on our own, which has been interesting considering the accessibility need for a lot of the residents,” another resident, Megan Beckmann, said.
“So even if they looking for a place, there’s still very low percentage of places that are wheelchair accessible or near schools … so it’s kind of just a search.”
She’s messaged people on a variety of listings, but hasn’t heard much back. Others, she said, have been applying to BC Housing to access their pool of accommodation.
Regardless, the uncertainty after finding a home is a lot to bear for an already vulnerable population, she said, mentioning a lawsuit that’s been filed recently.
It’s aimed at the university and the City of Kelowna, and says there should have been better planning and foresight when the tower project got underway. If there had been, this situation would not have materialized, the lawsuit claims. The city did not comment when called, nor did Pathways, though it had a meeting on Tuesday to discuss next steps.
Sharon Bray, another displaced resident, said the situation she’s in now feels uncomfortably familiar.
“It’s really suffocating, actually, to be waking up every morning not knowing where you’re going to be living after Aug. 15,” Bray said.
“You know, I’ve been homeless before, I’ve gone through fire and been in temporary housing and this is just bringing up a lot of trauma for me and it’s triggering some of those past memories.”
She said she contacted 11 places on Sunday in hopes that she could call one home, and when each of them heard she had an emotional support pet, they turned her away.
Regardless, however, she’s grateful that UBC Properties Trust has reached out.
“It’s been a long time that we’ve been waiting to hear from them. I know it will make a little bit of a difference for me, for sure,” she said.
“I’m one of the people paying one of the lowest rents and paying $375 a month at Hadgraft Wilson Place.
“So it will make a difference but it’s still definitely not enough, I don’t think, for me to be able to find a place.”
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