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They say home is where the heart is.
Angela Bishop has been putting her heart into the Métis Veterans Plaza, an affordable housing project in Saskatoon, for a decade. Now, 36 individuals and families will have a new, supportive community to call home.
“I feel in many respects that I need to give back,” Bishop said.
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For the past 20 years, Bishop has been involved with Camponi Housing Corporation. She’s presently chair of its joint oversight committee and has also served as a board member.
Originally from Green Lake, Bishop moved to Saskatoon and became homeless aged 16 as a teenage mother. She had both of her children before she turned 18 and became a Camponi tenant.
“It really created an opportunity for me to live in safe, affordable housing,” Bishop said.
She shared that while she was living in a small, 400 square foot-or-so apartment with five other people, she was able to receive her high school diploma, get her Bachelor of Arts and finally, her law degree.
“When you do this type of work, you learn a lot, and especially if you have that lived experience,” Bishop said.
Affordable housing critical
Some of the 36 housing units at Métis Veterans Plaza in Blairmore Suburban Centre have had tenants since October and November, according to Bishop.
She said a one-bedroom suite will cost about $800 monthly, with two bedrooms ringing in at $1,000 a month. Each suite is charged $100 each month for utilities.
Most importantly, this latest Camponi housing development includes wraparound services for tenants to help them with whatever they might need to be successful in work, school and their personal lives, as well as placing a premium on community connection.
Bishop said people who live in the development have to want to be part of the community.
“You have to want to be part of a community. You have to be able to step up and do that. And if you’re not willing to be part of the community and step up and want to make differences or changes in your life, we have other places for you to live,” Bishop said.
Building ambassadors take on caretaker-like roles in the community, while also bringing tenants together, according to Bishop. It allows students and others to develop useful day-to-day skills and support their neighbours by doing things like buying milk for the Elder who might live next door to them.
“It’s not just about the physical building itself, but really about their sense of belonging, how they’re connecting with one another, how they’re supporting one another,” Bishop shared.
Even the daycare connected with the development is committed to making the children living in the affordable housing community a priority.
Tenants are encouraged to stay as long as they want. Bishop said the housing isn’t meant to be transitional, though there may come a time when some tenants feel they are ready to move on to bigger things.
“The support helps the people, the community that we serve, to stay connected and to empower them,” Bishop said.
The housing development is also pet friendly, because of the understanding of the emotional support animals can provide to tenants, according to Bishop. The development has partnered with the SPCA on a pet food bank to help support pet owners living in the units.
Saskatchewan Minister of Social Services, Terry Jenson, expressed excitement at families being able to call the new Métis Veterans Plaza home at its ribbon cutting ceremony on Jan. 23, 2026. (Libby Gray/650 CKOM)
Building more housing at ‘record pace’
Minister of Social Services and Minister responsible for the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation, Terry Jenson, is glad to see the housing development officially open.
“We’re so excited that there’s going to be families, there’s going to be individuals, there’s going to be seniors able to move in, not just put a roof over their head, but have that sense of community,” Jenson said.
Jenson noted there is always a need for affordable housing and said it’s something the Government of Saskatchewan is focused on, providing various needed housing across the continuum, from social housing to affordable housing options.
Saskatoon Mayor Cynthia Block said though the Métis Veterans Plaza project began before the kind of affordability crisis Saskatoon is seeing at present, the new affordable housing development “stands as a shining example of what we can do.”
“We are able to build at a record pace, which is required right now,” Block said. “I’m grateful for a construction season that is really starting to unleash some of the affordability issues that we are seeing in our city.”
The affordability need is something more important than ever, as the completion of the Métis Veterans Plaza shows, Block told reporters on Friday at the official ribbon cutting for the housing development.
She said the development is not just a place where people can live, but a place where they can thrive.
Saskatoon Mayor Cynthia Block speaks at the official ribbon cutting, opening the new Métis Veterans Plaza on Jan. 23, 2026. (Libby Gray/650 CKOM)
Block said sometimes the humanitarian thing to do is the most affordable thing to do, stressing that when people are housed, there are lesser costs in other areas, like health care.
She wants to see more building happening in Saskatoon, and more affordable housing in the city.
“We’re going to have to work more earnestly than ever with other orders of government and with our whole community to achieve it,” Block said, calling the Métis Veterans Plaza the “blueprint.”
“We have to build more housing more quickly. That is how we get to the other side of this is to ensure there’s enough housing to meet the needs of people,” she said.
Jenson agreed, saying it all comes down to money and different levels of government with different priorities. He emphasized the need for collaboration from various groups and government levels to see projects like the Métis Veterans Plaza through.
Block commended the Métis community, Camponi Housing Corporation and SaskNative Rentals for assembling all orders of government to see success in the project.
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