Thursday February 19, 2026 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 3:23 pm]
by Mary P BRooke | Island Social Trends
The BC Rent Bank is a creative and insightful innovation in this province to assist those who experience short-term challenges when locating into or relocating within the housing rental market.
The BC Rent Bank program — operated by VanCity Community Foundation on behalf of a range of organizations — is intended to ensure greater affordability for low- and middle-income British Columbians who — by way of being renters — are not further squeezed by the costs of renting in this province. Their website leads with the slogan: Stay housed when times get tough.
BC Rent Bank is a backbone organization that partners with the provincial rent bank network to provide technology, resources, and training.
Plenty of demand:
Rent banks in BC received over 9,000 inquiries in 2025, according to BC Rent Bank. They have not yet provided a stated number of loans actually issued.
Applications rose 13% in a single year in 2025. Financial support to renters increased 16%, says BC Rent (awaiting clarification as to whether that is 16% more per applicant, or a total funding issuance overall).
Not in Budget 2026:
There was no mention of the BC Rent Bank in Budget 2026 earlier this week [other Budget 2026 news].
Two days ahead of the budget announcement, Island Social Trends asked Finance Minister Brenda Bailey about the funding fate of the BC Rent Bank (as well as other rental programs like RAP and SAFER), and her response about those rental support programs that they were “protected and increased last year and remain important to us”.
In that pre-budget comment was the hint of no increase to rent-support programs.
In fact, Island Social Trends learned from the Ministry on Budget Day (Feburary 17) that the SAFER program (rent support for seniors) had funds left over from 2025 — apparently that it is under-subscribed (with the stated justification of therefore no funding increase to the program).
The ministry’s view is that the program was not promoted well enough, but some repeat recipients are receiving less than they were in previous years (perhaps due to criteria that are still not working for the best outcome for renters).
It should be noted that most of the funds loaned out are recouped through monthly repayments from the loan recipients. As such, the rent bank organizations are to some degree self-sustaining.
Petition:
BC Rent Bank has been running a petition in recent months, asking for public support to continue receiving provincial funding for the program.
In a sense, that has stoked the fear of funding renewal at the three-year expiry coming up March 31, 2026.
BC Rent Bank comment:
“Budget 2026 contains no clear commitment to renewed funding for BC Rent Bank. We are working now to receive clarification from government and hope to meet with senior decision makers in the coming days,” said BC Rent Bank Executive Director Melissa Giles in a statement to Island Social Trends today.
“We remain committed to working collaboratively to ensure this proven prevention tool remains available to communities across the province,” said Giles today.
“This funding uncertainty creates real and immediate challenges for local programs that are already experiencing increased demand. They are run by local organizations with real staff, real caseloads, and real obligations to the people they serve. When those organizations don’t know whether funding will continue, they are forced to plan for the worst-case scenario,” said Giles.
“The need is real; it is growing and renters across BC are counting on this vital safety net to still be there when emergency strikes,” says Giles.
“Declining asking rents on a listings website are not a sign that the crisis is over. Until rents come within reach of the people paying them, scaling back renter supports would be premature and harmful,” says VanCity in a report published in November 2025.
Still working as well as it could?
It’s unclear from the above BC Rent Bank commentary as to whether staffing and office operations are protected over the amounts that might be loaned out to BC Rent Bank support recipients.
All issued loans to qualified recipients are repayable in full.
Criteria for a successful BC Rent Bank application are strident. Last year, Giles told Island Social Trends that not as many people are qualifying for the loans. That can really only be due to perceived inability or unwillingness of recipients to repay; the loan application is bank-style (overseen by VanCity Credit Union), leaving few stones unturned and a sense of justified risk being near-zero).
This undermines the confidence that people might have in the program — not just for those who might hope to be supported by the program, but also for arms-length assessment at the government ministry level where they might require more clarification as to why fewer applicants are successfully qualifying.
Hope for program continuation:
BC Rent Bank success if being impacted by their own operational structure and their highly strict qualification process.
BC Rent Bank needs to better explain to the Finance Ministry and Housing Ministry about their role in helping renters in emergency situations but also how their internal operational structure might change in order to direct more funding toward recipients instead of structural operations.
BC Rent Bank would be wise to review and revise their application process. Better to help more people with the risk of a few loan defaults. Generally speaking, people who are assisted in an emergency are grateful in a way that translates into full intention to pay.
Failure of this program would be a very sad statement about the victory of process and banking culture over the needs of people who need support in many ways in the unrelenting highly unaffordable, limited supply rental market.
Newly rented vacant units might be at lower rents than compared to previous years, but that doesn’t recognize the inflated rent levels that people are paying who started newly renting in 2022 to 2025.
Overall rents in BC are still going up:
“For people searching at the lower end of the market, where most renters are looking, competition remains fierce and options are extremely limited,” said VanCity themselves in their November 2025 report.
“When we look at data that captures overall rents — what people across BC are actually paying each month — the picture is very different. According to the CMHC Rental Market Survey released in December 2025, average rents are still rising,” says VanCity in their November 2025 article.
And in stating the obvious, VanCity says:
- 98% of renter households in core housing need in Metro Vancouver will not benefit from recent increases in rental supply. We need significantly more non-market, community-owned housing.
- Housing insecurity is increasing because of a widening gap between wages and rents. Emergency programs like BC Rent Bank are more critical than ever, and their provincial funding must be renewed before it expires this spring.
===== RELATED:
- BC Rent Bank aims to adapt to current rental realities (March 25, 2024)
- Province gives $11 million boost to BC Rent Bank (February 2, 2024)
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