Kainai Members Move into New Blood Tribe Housing Units in St. Mary’s Community

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.”