BC’s largest conference dedicated to affordable housing was held at the Sheraton Wall Centre in Vancouver, BC from November 17-19, 2025. Bringing together housing providers, policymakers, sector leaders and advocates from across the province, Housing Central provides an important opportunity for the sector to come together, exchange ideas and strengthen collaboration.
Key Themes and Topics from Housing Central 2025
Throughout the conference, several clear themes took centre stage: deepening cross-sector collaboration, advancing new approaches to financing and stewardship, strengthening governance and accelerating climate-resilient, people-centred housing solutions.
The opening day featured remarks from B.C.’s Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs, Christine Boyle, and Federal Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, Gregor Robertson, who spoke to a full audience of more than 1,700 attendees about their governments’ continued commitment to affordable housing. Jean Lamirande, Senior Vice-President of the newly established federal entity Build Canada Homes, provided further insight into the federal government’s direction, highlighting priorities such as support for shovel-ready community housing projects, modern construction methods, and the upcoming launch of the Canada Rental Protection Fund. He also referenced Build Canada Homes’ forthcoming Investment Policy and a call for proposals.
Across all three days, keynote sessions from Anthony Morgan, Katherena Vermette, Anthony Wood, and Jay Kiew prompted attendees to think expansively, on how to disagree productively, the role of storytelling in systems change, the future of our cities, and how to navigate rapid, ongoing transformation. These ideas helped frame the conversations that followed, including RPF-led presentations and sessions featuring many of the Fund’s non-profit partners.
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Insights from Nearly Two Years of Acquisitions
This year, not only did we attend, but CEO Katie Maslechko spoke at two of the sessions: the Funders Panel and From Acquisitions to Assets: Strategies for Growth – where RPF led a deep-dive session on how to build an acquisition strategy for your organization and how to pre-qualify through the RPF.
In the Funders Panel, along with Robyn Adamache from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Lisa Helps from BC Builds, and moderated by Erika Sagert from the BC Non-Profit Housing Association, Katie spoke about how the Fund supports acquisitions, eligibility requirements, and the importance of our renewal grants in ensuring that affordable homes remain safe, sustainable and livable for decades to come.
“When we were first established, the biggest threat we saw for tenants was redevelopment, which is still a reality, but now we’re seeing that it’s ‘disinvestment’ that is causing tenant displacement,” said Katie Maslechko, CEO, Rental Protection Fund. “A lot of urgent repairs and priority projects have been left for far too long, and the Rental Protection Fund’s [Renewal Grants] are provided as a capital injection to facilitate this overdue maintenance and break the cycle of disinvestment.”
From Acquisitions to Assets, Katie and the RPF team modelled the various pathways to growth, specifically looking at acquisitions, and how to determine whether acquisitions might be the right fit for growth. Our state-of-the-art, innovative tools were also modeled by our team: the Strategic Housing Acquisition Resource Platform (SHARP) and the Tenant Policy Atlas. If you’d like to learn more about any of these tools or the Fund's acquisition process, explore How It Works.
When you take on an acquisition, you are adding assets to your balance sheet," said Cassandra Smith, Director of Public Affairs, Rental Protection Fund. "By receiving a contribution from the Rental Protection Fund, you begin building equity in the property—equity that grows over time and can later be leveraged for future acquisitions or to expand your presence within the community housing sector."
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Sector Leaders Share Their Experiences
During the three-day conference, RPF met and engaged with dozens of non-profit housing providers, financial partners and lenders, members of the commercial real estate sector, insurance providers and more – all committed to growing the impact of affordable housing. Throughout the conference, it was encouraging to see acquisitions referenced across multiple sessions and hear from many of the Fund's pre-qualified non-profit partners.
Entre Nous Femmes – one of our pre-qualified non-profit partners who has acquired two properties through the Fund – spoke about their ongoing partnership with Tapestry Capital, and how they are leveraging community bonds for additional financial support for a new project under Together for Homes. With the launch of a new community bond, they are looking to raise $3M to re-develop 40 aging townhomes into 600+ affordable rental homes.
We also heard from Squamish Nation, Nch'kay Development Corporation and Hiyam Housing Society about their plan for 800+ new homes, community amenities and more to promote safe, secure and affordable housing for Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) People that will support physical, social, mental and emotional well-being.
Development with Government Funding was a panel session that included Catalyst Community Development, Connective and Sacha Investments. Connective spoke to their expansion to new parts of the province through acquisitions, while Sacha Investments referenced the how their impact capital has played a role in acquisitions, including providing financing for Aunt Leah’s Properties to acquire 41-unit building in Burnaby—Bethany Estate, one of RPF's protected properties.
During the awards ceremony gala, we were immensely proud to see that pre-qualified non-profit partner, Connective, was named BCNPHA's 2025 Housing Provider of the Year. The BCNPHA’s Housing Provider of the Year Award highlights organizations that demonstrate creativity and leadership in creating safe, affordable, and inclusive housing. Knowing that we are partnered alongside non-profit housing providers that drive substantial innovation, it continues to motivate us towards scaling impact together within the community housing sector.
Building a Legacy of Sustainability
Did you know that the average cost to retrofit a unit is less than one-third of the average cost to build a new unit?
In the Roadmap to Retrofits, Montage Development Consultants walked through the financial forecasting of retrofitting, how non-profits can successfully undergo a retrofit and the minimum energy efficiency obtained from a retrofit. For example, converting a gas building into an electric building achieves a minimum of 60% increase in energy efficiency.
In Affordable Housing: Climate Ready Futures, Vancity, Entre Nous Femmes and Affine Climate Solutions discussed the importance of creating a Net Zero Strategy—specifically, measuring scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions—in order to set emission targets and align an organization's climate goals to better determine which specific actions should be priortized during an energy retrofit.
During a tour of LJ Christmas Apartments in Coquitlam, a seniors housing community that is undergoing a transformative, deep-energy retrofit, it became apparent that deep-energy retrofits can be successfully carried out while residents remain in place. This notion further demonstrates that sustainable upgrades can happen with minimal disruption, and many of these retrofits prioritized tenant comfort and engagement. Also, in-suite renovations complemented building-wide upgrades, such as high-efficiency windows and heat pumps for space heating. All which is partially funded by CMHC's Canada Greener Affordable Housing (CGAH) program.
Throughout the sessions, it was encouraging to hear partners speak to the impact we’re creating together. This year's Housing Central Conference was an energetic three days, and we look forward to returning again next year.
