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Business View Magazine
Heart River Housing
Addressing the housing needs of Northern Alberta’s
seniors and low income citizens
In the heart of Northern Alberta, Canada, the towns
are small and the spaces between them are wide. The
11 municipalities that are represented by Heart River
Housing (HRH), the area’s centralized housing man-
agement agency, in this large, geographically diverse
part of the province, span an area of approximately
23,600 square miles - from Kinuso to Girouxville, and
from Fox Creek to Ridgevalley. Within these outposts,
one can also find the towns of Donnelly, Enilda, Falher,
Faust, McLennan, Valleyview, and High Prairie.
Heart River Housing was established by Ministerial
Order, under the Alberta Housing Act of 1960. Lind-
say Pratt is the agency’s current Administrator. He
works out of its central office in High Prairie, where
he oversees a staff of 70. Pratt recounts some of the
organization’s early history: “At that point in time, it
was formed to take care of the Pleasant View Lodge
in High Prairie. In the old days the focus was entirely
on seniors and the lodge facilities were substantially
different than they are today. In 1984, the province be-
gan looking at the possibility of consolidating a lot of
the small management bodies into more of a regional
look, thinking that what was good for one community
