Preventing the Rapid Loss of Affordable Housing: The NHA podcast speaks with Steve Pomeroy about how to protect Canada’s endangered low-rent homes

In this month’s episode of the New Housing Alternatives podcast, hosts Cherise Burda and Ren Thomas speak with housing policy expert Steve Pomeroy.

Pomeroy’s research has made headlines, highlighting an alarming finding. For every one unit of affordable housing built across Canada, 11 are lost, with even higher ratios in cities like Ottawa and Waterloo. We discuss the scale and scope of this rapid loss and what can be done to stop it. 

We begin by digging into how exactly these units are being lost, be it through rent hikes after tenants leave or demolition. We consider: 

• the growing impact of renovictions and other practices used by landlords to “turnover” units, and
• the role of large financial firms and buy-to-let investors in making rental housing less stable and affordable.

Next, we discuss policy options for addressing these trends. 

Pomeroy emphasizes that provincial governments could make a huge difference by strengthening rent controls. This includes legislating vacancy controls, which would prevent landlords hiking rents in between tenancies.

He challenges the notion that strong rent controls suppress the construction of new rental, worsening affordability. “Quebec,” Pomeroy reminds us, ““has the strongest rent controls in the country and has had them for 80 years.” It also “has the highest level of rental production in the country.”

Provinces can also support municipalities by promoting province-wide programs to protect tenants from renovictions, and, to require one-for-one replacement of affordable rental units. These programs can prevent tenants from being displaced from their communities by ensuring they have a right of return at a similar rent once their homes have been renovated or rebuilt.

The Federal government could also be playing a much stronger role in expanding access to rent controlled apartments. 

First, they could do so by scaling up funding for development of public, co-operative, and non-profit owned rental housing. Alarmingly, the recent Budget 2025 appears to be moving fast in the opposite direction. As recently reported by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, “Federal planned spending on housing programs is set to decline 56 per cent, from $9.8 billion in 2025 26 to $4.3 billion in 2028-29 due to the expiry of funding for existing programs and cuts set out in Budget 2025.”

Beyond directly funding non-profit housing development, the Federal government has another powerful tool with untapped potential for steering the supply of purpose-built rental to be more responsive to local needs. The share of rental unit starts supported through CMHC’s Apartment Construction Loan Program and multi-unit mortgage loan insurance has ballooned from 5% in 2017 to 88% in 2024.  The government could make access to this cheap financing conditional upon committing to stronger affordability requirements and rent controls.  

Finally, Pomeroy emphasizes the value of providing funds and financing for non‑profits to buy up Canada’s endangered stock of affordable housing,  preserving it as permanently affordable. These lower-rent units are being increasingly targeted by large financial firms, who often make huge profits by “de-tenanting” them and hiking the rents. Pomeroy quips, “if you can’t beat them, join them.” He advocate for all-levels of government to scale up support for non-profits to buy up and protect these at-risk units. 

In recent years, the launch of BC’s $500 million Rental Protection Fund and the City of Toronto’s Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition Program ($102 million in 2024 alone) provide powerful examples of how impactful these programs can be. With the Federal government recently initiating a small national Rental Protection Fund (offering $470 million in grants and $1 billion in low-interest loans), there is clearly an opportunity to scale up support for non-profit acquisition, to prevent displacement and homelessness.

Altogether, the scale and speed of the loss of affordable rental housing is daunting. This is a central challenge worsening Canada’s affordability and homelessness crises. Any serious attempt to end homelessness and progressively realize the right to housing for all must confront this challenge head on. This conversation reminds us that governments have many options for doing so, which can and should be scaled up now.  

You can listen to the podcast below, or wherever you get your podcasts.