UBC-Okanagan will replace damaged Kelowna building, citing ethical responsibility
Global News
Once the building is finished, the city and university will do a land swap. UBC-O will acquire the old Hadgraft-Wilson property and the new site will be owned by the city.
A year and a half after residents were forced out of their affordable housing complex near downtown Kelowna, B.C., the roughly 80 residents received news this week they will never return to the building again.
“I was a little caught off-guard to hear that there was a new building intended for Wilson-Hadgraft Place and Pathways,” said former resident Megan Beckmann.
The single mom of three was among the dozens of people displaced from Hadgraft-Wilson Place in April of 2024 due to structural damage.
The building was home to residents on low income, many of them with disabilities.
Cracks started appearing in the newly-constructed building not long after UBC-Okanagan started its downtown campus build behind it.
It was eventually deemed unsafe, prompting the building to be evacuated.
Now, a year and a half later, a working committee made up of UBC Properties Trust, the City of Kelowna and Pathways Abilities Society, the building’s operator, has reached a deal that will see the university-controlled developer step up to replace the building.
“We have legal obligations to the community but we also also have ethical responsibilities in the community,” said Lesley Cormack, UBC-Okanagan’s deputy vice-chancellor and principal.
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