The launch of the Canada Rental Protection Fund (CRPF) marks an important milestone for community housing in Canada. Backed by $1.5 billion in federal funding, the fund will give community housing providers new tools to acquire existing rental properties and preserve their affordability over the long term. The Canadian Housing Acquisition Fund (CHAF) has been selected to deploy CRPF investments, and organizations can now begin the pre-qualification process.
The Centre welcomes this important step forward.
Building more affordable housing remains essential. But addressing the housing crisis over the long term also requires protecting the affordable homes we already have. Across the country, the supply of existing rental properties with affordable rents is shrinking when they are sold, redeveloped, or converted to higher-rent housing.
At the CRPF launch in Ottawa, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Gregor Robertson emphasized the critical role of community housing providers, which are rooted in their communities and have a long-term mission to preserve housing affordability. He described the CRPF model as a way to combine accountability for public funds with the sector expertise needed to act quickly when acquisition opportunities arise.
Build Canada Homes CEO Ana Bailão also stressed the importance of a sector-led Fund. Community housing organizations know their markets, understand how to operate housing, and know what it takes to preserve affordability over time. She also pointed to community acquisition models that have already proven effective and highlighted the opportunity to expand this approach on a national scale.
The CRPF is therefore built around a powerful idea: putting community housing organizations at the heart of efforts to preserve affordable rental housing.
A new tool to preserve affordability
Over its first five years, the Fund has set the target to help protect approximately 7,000 at-risk rental homes.
Ottawa Community Land Trust’s experience, highlighted at the launch, illustrates both the potential and the challenges of this work. Since 2023, the land trust has acquired several rental properties, raising more than $5 million through community bonds. However, it has had to walk away from some acquisitions when financing costs made it impossible to preserve affordable rents. The CRPF can help make more of these acquisitions viable.
Some of the capital can then be recycled and reinvested, allowing its impact to grow over time. But making capital available raises another question: how many organizations are currently in a position to seize these opportunities?
Expanding the sector’s acquisition capacity
Acquisition readiness varies across the sector. Some organizations already have the teams, real estate and financial expertise, partnerships, and internal systems needed to assess a property quickly and put an offer together. Others have the potential and ambition to grow but are still building the capacity needed to pursue acquisitions.
This is particularly true for some smaller organizations, rural and northern providers, Indigenous housing organizations, and organizations operating in markets where community acquisitions are still relatively uncommon. They may have a deep understanding of local housing needs without yet having the expertise, relationships, or tools required to turn a potential acquisition into a viable project.
As the CRPF rolls out, it will therefore also be important to consider how to expand the pool of organizations and projects that are ready to access the Fund. This work is complementary to the role of the CRPF: the Fund finances viable acquisitions, while capacity building can help more organizations reach the required level of readiness to pursue them.
This is an area where the Centre could make a distinct contribution.
Through its relationships, programs, funding initiatives, and partnerships across the country, the Centre works with organizations of varying sizes, capacities, and circumstances. As a national intermediary, the Centre can reach organizations that do not yet see themselves as acquisition-ready and support them in taking the next steps.
Targeted outreach, readiness assessments, technical assistance, and coaching will help organizations better understand the acquisition process, strengthen their capacity, and develop opportunities that could eventually be brought forward to the CRPF.
Making the most of this new opportunity
The launch of the CRPF gives the sector a long-awaited national tool to preserve existing affordable housing. It also recognizes the important role community housing organizations can play in acquiring these properties and protecting their affordability over the long term.
The next challenge is to ensure that a growing number of organizations across Canada have the capacity to participate.
Alongside the rollout of the Fund, strengthening the sector’s acquisition capacity is an opportunity to broaden its reach over the long term. The Centre is ready to bring its expertise, networks, and experience to this effort and to work with Build Canada Homes and its partners to help more organizations prepare for future acquisition opportunities.
