B.C. non-profit housing developers have been left scrambling to fund well-advanced proposed projects after the province paused subsidies for a widely praised affordable-housing program.

While unveiling its 2026 budget in February, Premier David Eby’s government announced a for $775 million worth of proposals under the Community Housing Fund, launched in May 2025, would not proceed.

The program has been widely praised for fostering partnerships between non-profit groups, private developers, governments and other organizations, helping to offset the province’s housing shortage at a time when conventional projects are struggling to get sufficient financial backing.

Non-profit developers are upset that they received such short notice on the funding pullback after they spent millions of dollars getting them ready for construction, according to multiple media reports. The $775-million call for projects was slated to fund the development of 4,600 residential units.

Thom Armstrong, CEO of the Co-operative Housing Federation of B.C., called the province’s decision “catastrophic” in an interview with CBC.

“There are thousands of units in the hopper that were submitted as proposals in response to the Community Housing Fund call [for proposals],” Armstrong told his interviewer. “Those developments have been occupying people’s time, attention and money on the assumption the call would be proceeding. And to find out now that they’re not is so incredibly disappointing.”

He told CBC that the Community Land Trust, the federation’s development arm, had already invested $2 million to land developed on East Pender Street in Vancouver shovel-ready for a 64-unit affordable-housing project. But now, the land trust does not have a means of recovering its expenses.

Facing a $13.3-billion deficit, the province has stated that it will reallocate $1.4 billion previously dedicated to housing projects. The CHF is crediting with supporting the development of 13,600 homes over the past eight years, according to The Globe and Mail. The Globe reported that approximately 100 projects that were awaiting approval are now in limbo as a result of the $775-million pullback.

“The rug [is] being pulled out from under the sector, particularly on projects that were put forward in good faith with significant costs incurred by the non-profit sector in order to make those projects work,” Jill Atkey, CEO of the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association told CBC. “We’re unsure of what the future looks like for affordable-housing provision. The impacts of this will be felt for years.”

Brightside Community Homes Foundation CEO William Azaroff, told the Globe that the pullback came just when the non-profit housing sector was finally starting to make some progress in its quest to increase affordable-housing supply. Azaroff added that he was “shocked by the decision.”

He also told the Globe that the move effectively created a two-year pause in funding retroactive to 2025.

“That means we’re going to lose ground,” he said in the interview with the publication.

Atkey told the Globe that the sector had built momentum and capacity to deliver housing at scale.

“I’m not sure government realizes just what is lost through decisions like this,” she told the Globe, adding that many non-profit developers have shelved projects and not be able to retain staff to keep the efforts going.

The province’s move also risks damaging relationships across the housing sector, she told her interviewer.

“So, it’s an erosion of trust, I think, between non-profits and government, private-sector partners and government, municipalities and government, and a whole lot of vendors wondering how they’re going to be paid for the work they did,” she told her interviewer.

“It wasn’t lost on me, sitting in the budget lockup and seeing the finance minister put up a slide that said ‘protecting the things that are important,’ and housing wasn’t on that list.’ ”

Housing Minister Christine Boyle told the Globe that the CHF program itself is not cancelled and that thousands of units remain in progress from earlier funding rounds, “there will be more cycles of funding into the future.”

Boyle added that the province is continuing discussions with sector leaders and municipalities, stressing the need to collaborate on ways to reduce barriers to housing development.

Pictured: Proposed Brightside Community Homes Foundation project in Vancouver’s Kitsilano area.

Rendering: Brightside