Oki, Welcome
Blood Tribe Housing is a department of the Blood Tribe Administration and operates under the authority of Blood Tribe Chief and Council. Our office is located in the Townsite community of Standoff, AB.
Our department is responsible for the administration, allocation, and maintenance of Band-owned housing units on the Blood Reserve.
CONTACT US
Office Hours:
Monday to Friday – 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM
Closed (12:00 PM to 1:00 PM)
Phone: 403-737-3988
On-Call: 403-360-0842
On-Call (After Hours): 403-360-0842
*For households having issues with:
• No heat
• No water
• Electrical safety issues
• Sewer back-up
Fax: 403-737-3260
Email: [email protected]
Address: P.O. Box 150 Standoff, AB T0L 1Y0
Staff
Administrative:
Cody Wells
Director
(403)-737-4380
Raven Plume
Executive Assistant
(403)-360-0692 (cell)
Bernis Wells
Project Manager
(403)-737-4378 (office)
(587)-691-1392 (cell)
Dale Lowhorn Jr.
Repairs and Maintenance Supervisor
(403)-737-4385
Preston Crow Chief
Senior Accountant
(403)-737-4376
Service Delivery
Leslie Water Chief
Zone 1 – 91 Units
Zone 2 – 214 Units
Moses Lake Community – 119
St. Paul’s Community – 6
St. Mary’s Community – 16
Total – 446 Units
Corry Sweet Grass
Zone 3 – 190 Units
Zone 4 – 222 Units
Lavern Community – 37 Units
Total – 449 Units
Gilbert Black Water
Zone 5 – 162 Units
Zone 6 – 106 Units
Total – 268 Units
Edgar Many Fingers & Melodie Little Bear
Standoff Townsite – 213 Units
Special Needs Housing – 5
Total of units on Blood Tribe – 1405
Housing offers programs such as Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC), Residential Assistance Program, and New House Construction. These are repayable programs and based on available funding.
CMHC helps to provide grant funding to contribute to help renovate and retrofit on-reserve housing units.
The Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program is a CMHC program where CMHC provides grant funding as per CMHC qualifying items. The Blood Tribe provides additional funding that is repayable by the home occupant to cover complete renovation costs.
New Housing Construction is a program administered through CMHC for the construction, purchase, and administration of affordable on-reserve rental housing for 25+ year mortgages.
Repair & Maintenance
Major repairs that require an application with payment arrangements may be as follows:
- Furnace replacement
- Rood replacements
- Cabinets
- Bathroom renovations
- Exterior siding
- Water & Sewer
- Repairs
Projects
Projects though Blood Tribe Housing consist of work orders, repairs and maintenance. For any other projects, please contact your Housing Relations Officer (HRO’s) for details. HRO’s are listed above under Service Delivery.
Blood Tribe Housing is NOT Responsible For:
- Septic tank cleaning
- Cistern tank cleaning
- Furnace/Duct cleaning
- Repairs of appliances
- Replacement of fridge or stove
- Garbage removal cleanup
- Fencing around the house
- Eaves toughs cleaning
- Fumigations of pests such as bedbugs, mice and wasps/bees
- Purchase of water conditioners
- Disposal of dead animals around the house.
Fall Maintenance Checklist for Tenants and Homeowners
As the weather gets colder and we enter the fall moons, it is important to prepare your home for winter.
Taking time now to complete fall maintenance helps protect your home from freezing temperatures, reduces heating costs, and prevents costly damage such as frozen pipes, leaks, and drafts.
Blood Tribe Housing encourages both tenants and homeowners on the Blood Reserve to use this checklist and make sure your home is ready for the months ahead.
Kainai members move into new Blood Tribe Housing units in St. Mary’s community
Story by Henry Heavyshield, Blood Tribe Communications Officer
April 16th, 2025
This month successful applicants moved into Blood Tribe Housing’s new homes in the St. Mary’s community. Twelve units were added to Blood Tribe’s growing housing inventory. These new two and three-bedroom units are modern styled, freshly painted, include new fridges, stoves, and main floor outlets for washers and dryers.
Leslie Water Chief, Housing Relations Officer (HRO), and Bernis Wells, Project Manager, were in attendance to show the new residents their homes.
According to Water Chief, these twelve units will house approximately 60 Blood Tribe members. The units are elder and handicap friendly, offering spacious bathrooms, halls, and doorways.
This expansion to the St. Mary’s community was made possible by funding from Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC), Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC), and band funds.
Construction on the units began in early summer of 2023 at Blood Tribe Housing’s plant and was completed in May of 2024. Blood Tribe Housing worked diligently over the five-month selection process and determined the successful applicants by October, 2024. The overall construction and delivery of the homes went well.
“We did our feasibility study,” said Wells, “there were some issues with ground penetrating, so there were slight delays, but it went good.”
First Nations and Canadians are collectively facing an ongoing nationwide housing shortage. Due to several factors, including lack of funding and racial discrimination, the effects of this shortage are experienced more sharply by Indigenous communities.
For instance, according to 2021 national census data, over one in six Indigenous people live in crowded housing. Furthermore, Indigenous people are three times more likely to live in a dwelling in need of major repairs compared to non-Indigenous people. These statistics underscore the persistent housing disparities faced by Indigenous communities in Canada.
Tim Eagle Speaker and Joellen Smith, two successful Blood Tribe applicants who moved in this month, shared their challenges finding adequate housing off-reserve.
“Most of the time we didn’t get any calls back,” said Eagle Speaker, “we’d call, and they [potential landlords] wouldn’t get back to us. That’s why we stayed with family because no one would return our calls.”
Despite these challenges, stories like Eagle Speaker’s and Smith’s provide hope for other Blood Tribe members seeking adequate housing. The young couple expressed their excitement on the day they inspected their new residence.
“I’m happy and kind of anxious to move in,” said Eagle Speaker. Smith shared her partner’s enthusiasm, “I’m excited; I’m happy; my son turned 17 months yesterday, so it feels good. He’ll have his own room, his own home,” she added.
Blood Tribe Housing is working towards making more success stories like Eagle Speaker’s and Smith’s possible.
“We are just trying to build more homes for our community,” said Water Chief, “there’s lots of people out there that need homes, that are living off-reserve, with high rent. I hope we can provide more for them.”
Water Chief shared her department’s optimism regarding future efforts aimed at providing increased housing on the Blood Reserve, “we do have a couple [homes] in other communities that have come out recently, and we look forward to building more homes for our community members.”
