The lease for evacuated residents of Hadgraft Wilson Place in Kelowna who wanted to temporarily stay at Okanagan College has expired.
Tenants were evacuated on April 2 after a shifting soil on the neighboring construction site of the University of BC Okanagan campus in downtown Kelowna caused cracks in the apartment building and the local fire chief declared the building uninhabitable.
Residents were temporarily housed in hotels with the help of non-profit and Hadgraft building manager Pathways Abilities Society until Okanagan College offered to make its new dormitories on the Kelowna campus available in late April to house the more than 80 evacuees for the summer.
The college has leased the dorms through August 15 and needs the remaining weeks of the summer to prepare the building for students before the start of the school year.
Monique Saebels acted as spokesperson for the Hadgraft tenants. She said, “All of the residents of Hadgraft would like to thank Okanagan College for hosting us for three months. We will never forget them letting us be together again. We are grateful for everything.”
Black Press Media has learned that all tenants were able to find other rental apartments in the city.
One of the residents, a single mother, was unable to secure a rental apartment until September 1, but hopes to stay with friends in the meantime. The woman told Black Press that she had asked to stay at the college until then, but was told that was not possible.
UBC made a cash offer of $12,000 to tenants on July 2 to help them find suitable rental properties. The offer stipulated that the post-secondary institution would not accept responsibility for the damages to Hadgraft Wilson Place and that the $12,000 would be deducted from lawsuit profits if residents received financial compensation as a result of either of the two class-action lawsuits filed.
Despite the offer, Hadgraft evacuee and single mother Megan Beckmann said the money won’t last long due to Kelowna’s limited and expensive rental market.
“I was paying about $1,000 at Hadgraft Wilson Place and now I’m paying about $2,500, so that’s a huge difference in rent,” Beckmann said. “I’m still figuring out how I’m going to make ends meet long-term. I hope we can go back to our homes. $1,500 a month is a huge difference for a single parent, a life-changing amount and the difference between food and shelter.”
According to apartment search site Zumper, the average monthly rent cost for a one-bedroom apartment in the city is currently $1,997, about 20 percent higher than the national median.
The single mother is expected to go back to school in September.
“Since I also have two children to take care of, I can’t just work whenever I want,” Beckmann said. “The rent at Hadgraft Wilson Place reflected that. It was nice to have the comfort of not having to worry about food and a roof over my head while I try to improve my life with college.”
Although Beckmann has found a rental apartment, she and the other tenants lack the necessary belongings to furnish the new apartment.
When the evacuation order was announced on March 31, Hadgraft residents were told to pack a week’s worth of clothing in the hope of returning home soon. However, the evacuation was extended and access to the building was restricted. Furniture, clothing, photographs, food and other belongings remain stuck in their old apartments.
Saebels lived with her mother in Hadgraft. “Everything we own is in this apartment,” Saebels said. “There are things that are irreplaceable. My mother has a shrine to my father in her bedroom. He’s been dead for seven years and every little trinket means everything to her. If we don’t get these things back now, a big part of her life would be taken away from her.”
Charisse Daley, executive director of Pathways Abilities Society, said tenants were granted permission to enter Hadgraft Wilson Place on August 14, but the elevator was not working and was not accessible to people with physical disabilities.
“Many of our residents came to Hadgraft out of homelessness,” Beckmann explained. “To think that you’re getting ahead in this economy and finally have a chance, only to suddenly have your security pulled out from under you, it’s definitely an emotional issue.”
Other residents have different abilities that require accessible housing. Hadgraft Wilson Place was built to address this issue.
“I want everyone out there to see these scenarios. I want them to think about these people,” Saebels said, urging the public to put themselves in the shoes of Hadgraft residents. “When you go home at night and have dinner with your family, what are these people going to do? Where are they going to go?”
“I worry every day. I can’t sleep at night because I worry about my people. I don’t want people to become homeless.”
