The strain residents of Hadgraft Wilson Place have been under since being ousted from their homes more than a month ago was palpable Monday, as many made their way to their latest stop.
“It’s been really tough,” Tracy Hutton said as she juggled the supplies her son Harry will need at the new residence building at Kelowna, B.C.’s Okanagan College campus.
Harry, who has Down syndrome, has lived in three hotel rooms since the cracks appeared in the foundation of Hadgraft Wilson Place, believed to be caused by the construction of the nearby UBC Okanagan tower. Each move was harder than the last.
“I’m doing all the moving along with my friends, thank God. But it’s been really stressful,” Hutton said, adding that she’s one of the lucky ones to have a network. It’s harder on Harry.
“Harry speaks but he can’t always tell you exactly how he feels in his head. We’ve had three trips to emergency just because of doing things that he doesn’t normally do.”
He just fell out of bed one night, which he’d never done before. He’s had more seizures and, Hutton said, he’s been acting out a bit, which is also unusual.
Hutton said Harry isn’t alone in his stress and the surprising ways it’s manifesting itself. All residents are feeling it, and the fear of the unknown looms large for many.
While they’re grateful that Okanagan College has offered up its new residence building, it’s only until Aug. 15, and from that point forward nobody knows what’s going to happen.
What seems obvious to many, however, is that Hadgraft Place may not be their home again soon and that’s that’s a hard pill to swallow. It gave many a life that they’d been pining for.
“My gosh, it was community. His best friend with Down syndrome lived right next door and they’d spend almost every night together eating and bowling and doing stuff,” Hutton said.
“So to have everybody back in one place, it’s nice to see people again. The people are really happy to see each other.”
Taryn Prick was a resident of Hadgraft Wilson Place, and as she got situated at Okanagan College, she was feeling very grateful for the chance to reunite with her community. Like many others, she and her son spent the five weeks since the building was evacuated moving from hotel to hotel. While her son will miss the pools that come hand in hand with hotel life, she won’t miss the feeling of instability caused by moving over and over again.
“I’m so grateful for the college to give us a space to be a community again and kind of be one again because that was the whole point of the Hadgraft Wilson Place,” she said.
The loss of community caused her to struggle in the weeks that passed.
“It’s been frickin stressful. It’s triggered a lot of emotions for me and not only me but also my five-year-old. I have a hard time regulating my emotions so to regulate (his)… it’s a work in progress,” she said.
Despite relishing the opportunity to have a stable place to call home for the ext few months, she too is concerned about what is ahead.
“I always have a fear of the unknown. One of my big triggers in life is not knowing, so this whole experience has been really stressful but you know, we’ve been lucky so far with certain things so I’m hoping that luck keeps going,” she said.
The 84 residents of Hadgraft Wilson Place were forced out 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.
One of the most well-publicized losses was of the building’s namesake, James Hadgraft, who injured himself one night and never recovered.
“He started wandering a lot. The RCMP found him one night standing right outside Hadgraft Wilson Place with his groceries at midnight and had to bring him back to the hotel,” Bauman said.
“He was he was very anxious. He couldn’t quite understand what had happened to him. He was displeased he was living in a hotel.”
UBC Properties Trust resumed work at UBCO Downtown mid-month and are looking to further assess the damage.
“We have extended an offer and a request through BC Housing to be granted access to Hadgraft Wilson Place as quickly as possible to assess possible repairs,” UBCO spokesperson Nathan Skolski said in an email.
“As this property does not belong to UBC Properties Trust, we are awaiting decisions by BC Housing and their insurance providers to provide any engineering reports or advice that highlight the extent and nature of any needed remediation. Given that these engineering assessments were commissioned by BC Housing and their insurers, we do not have access to them at this time and cannot speak to their findings, if any.”
Cracks can be easily found throughout Hadgraft Wilson Place, and floors and windows have shifted out of place. The building, which neighbours the UBCO excavation site and was home to more than 80 people with varying cognitive and physical limitations, was placed on an evacuation order April 1. Tenants dispersed to local motels, and many have had to move more than once.