Canada's stock of affordable housing has seen a significant decline recently, despite the federal Liberals decade-long strategy to provide more.
Steve Pomeroy, a researcher at Carleton University, says between 2011 and 2016, for every new government-created unit, 15 were lost to the private market.
And Pomeroy says there's now concern the pandemic-induced economic crisis will put a real squeeze on small landlords as tenants have problems paying their rent.
He says it could lead to small landlords seeing their assets scooped up by larger real-estate funds that have little interest in keeping them affordable.
At the same time though, Pomeroy says the COVID-19 pandemic could also provide the federal and other governments with an opportunity to pick up rental units cheaply.
He says public support is needed to help smaller, non-profit housing providers acquire the capital they need to buy the properties being snatched up by real-estate investment trusts.