B.C.'s rent bank is at risk and here's why that matters
The BC Rent Bank is hoping that the provincial government will renew its funding so it can continue to provide no-interest loans to people when they can’t pay their rent.
The program has relied on provincial funding since it started as a pilot in 2019, but it has no funding guarantees after April of this year. If the province doesn’t include it in its 2026 budget, Melissa Giles, the managing director of BC Rent Bank, says that they — and many of their community organizations that run local rent banks — will start winding down their operations.
This will have an immediate impact on over 8,000 vulnerable households and could lead to increased homelessness, Giles said. She said it would also result in increased demand for emergency shelters and more pressure on nonprofits.
“We focus on renters who fall to sort of a low to modest income bracket, who are facing a temporary crisis. So, somebody who has a root canal, somebody who’s waiting for government benefits, somebody who has car expenses and they need that car for work,” Giles said.
“And they have to make that difficult decision, ‘Do I pay my rent or do I pay for this other expense that’s come up in my life?'”
These include folks who might have lost or experienced a reduction in employment and people with medical issues who need bridge funding until their benefits kick in.
Giles added that concern is increasingly growing for seniors, since they are typically on fixed incomes.
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“They likely have been in their rental for a fairly long time. So if they can’t preserve that rental, moving is not an option, because they’re not going to be able to afford that new rent,” Giles said.
She said that since 2019, people’s self-reported rent-to-income ratios have steadily climbed.
Now, they see people reporting that 50 per cent of their income is spent on housing costs (when asked what their take-home pay is compared to monthly rent).
In Metro Vancouver, over 62,000 households pay over half their income on rent.
Over half of B.C. residents do not have rainy day savings, according to a recent report from Canada’s largest insolvency firm, MNP Ltd. It also showed that 45 per cent of British Columbians say they’re $200 or less away from insolvency.
Glenn Pollock, a Port Coquitlam councillor who helped set up the rent bank in the Tri-Cities and is advocating that B.C. renew rent bank funding, emphasized the importance of the local rent bank in the Tri-Cities, which has helped 229 people and prevented homelessness.
“It’s just become like food banks,” he said. “It’s a necessity.”
How does the rent bank work?
The provincial government funds the BC Rent Bank, and it connects with community partners across B.C., providing them with funding, technology training, resources and development.
Then, these partners review renter applications, talk to them, collect documentation, assess eligibility, and, if a renter is approved, distribute funds and track the repayment of those loans.
The rent is provided as an interest-free loan and paid directly to the landlord or utility company.
One of the first rent bank models in Canada started in Toronto in 1998, and it gradually spread out from there. Around 2010, they started to independently pop up in B.C., Giles said.
In 2019, the BC Rent Bank was established, which supported the existing sites, learned from them, and then started its second phase of launching new sites. Now, it covers the entire province, with several in the Metro Vancouver area.
When BC Rent Bank has surveyed past users, it has found that 91 per cent are now in stable housing and 66 per cent would have faced homelessness without the program.
Do rent banks save B.C. money?
In 2024, BC Rent Bank published a report where it found that “for every dollar invested in BC Rent Bank, there is a return of $5 in savings for renters and the government.”
Giles said they did a statistical analysis to determine the percentage of people who would find housing right away, and the percentage that would be unhoused longer-term.
From that, BC Rent Bank looked at the costs a person has to pay when they lose their unit, like moving costs, higher rent, storage fees, and loss of possession.
It also examined what the government spends money on, like emergency shelters, health care, child welfare, and housing placement costs.
She said that from 2019, this has resulted in the provincial government saving $150 million.
Giles added that this is a conservative number because the report doesn’t include the costs that landlords or municipalities incur when someone can’t pay their rent.
“Precisely the wrong time”
Giles said that this is “precisely the wrong time” for the government to pull its support from the rent bank, due to economic uncertainty that many people are facing.
Even though Rental.ca has reported throughout the past year that rents are declining in Metro Vancouver, this data is based on vacant asking prices. Recent analysis from the Vancity Community Foundation found that data from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation shows that rent prices actually rose 2.3 per cent last year.
“Asking rents at the top of the market are not the metric that matters for rent bank clients. What matters is whether working families, seniors on fixed incomes, and people with disabilities can afford to keep a roof over their heads when an unexpected crisis hits. By that measure, the need has never been greater,” Giles said in an email.
“Renters need housing affordability. We need options for people. We’re there to catch people before they fall into crisis.”