Racing the Market: How a young leader is rescuing affordable housing at private-sector speed  

When affordable housing units disappear faster than they can be built, it takes a changemaker willing to turn the tides.   

Krystal Valencia didn’t wait for the system to catch up to the crisis. In just over a year, she built an innovative solution that addresses one of the sector’s more urgent challenges: a unique affordable housing acquisition model that lets non-profits compete at market speed to save affordable housing before it’s lost.  

As the founder and CEO of Rental Rescue, Krystal is the recipient of the 2025 ONPHA Young Changemaker Award. 

Racing against the market 

Hamilton lost nearly 16,000 units renting for $750 per month or less since 2011. Another 9,200 units between $750 and $1,000 vanished between 2016 and 2021. While new affordable housing projects navigate years of planning approvals and funding applications, existing units are disappearing at an alarming rate. They are snapped up by investors, renovicted, or flipped into luxury rentals.  

The problem isn’t just affordability. It’s speed. By the time most non-profits can secure funding, conduct feasibility studies, and navigate bureaucratic processes, the building is already sold.  

Krystal saw this gap and built a bridge across it.  

A new affordable housing acquisition model: Rescue, stabilize, transfer 

Rental Rescue operates on a simple premise: use private capital to acquire properties at market speed, stabilize them through strategic asset management, and eventually transfer ownership to community-based non-profits.  

Here’s how it works in practice. When an affordable building hits the market, Rental Rescue moves quickly through a private funding partner (for example, in this case, FirstOntario Credit Union) to purchase it. Rental Rescue then manages and stabilizes the property. Eventually, when the property is ready to transfer to non-profit ownership, they work collaboratively to secure funding through CMHC to transfer the property– making property ownership for smaller non-profits far more accessible.  

It’s a model that borrows the agility of the private sector while staying rooted in the values of the non-profit world. In doing so, it tackles two of ONPHA’s key advocacy priorities: creating acquisition capacity, and cutting red tape so non-profits can grow faster without administrative roadblocks.  

Since founding Rental Rescue in December 2023, Krystal has: 

• Acquired two multi-unit properties in Hamilton, preserving affordable housing for over 20 families who might otherwise have faced displacement.  
• Negotiated the purchase of thousands of units across Ontario in various stages of development.

Behind each of these units are families who didn’t have to move, tenants who kept their rent affordable, and communities that retained control of their housing stock. Beyond acquisition, Rental Rescue also provides tailored support services and distributes operational savings through a unique collaborative management model back to tenants.  

Building expertise from the ground up  

Krystal is self-taught. She didn’t come from real estate development or finance. She learned housing acquisition strategy, financial modeling, and market navigation through determination, because the sector needed it.  

Before founding Rental Rescue, Krystal spent nearly a decade in non-profit housing, holding progressive leadership roles at organizations like Home Suite Hope, Breakaway Community Services, and Tamir. Throughout her career, she’s raised over $30 million and earned recognition as one of Canada’s 2022 Young Impact Leaders. She’s contributing to global conversations while staying focused on local solutions, presenting her model at United Nations forums on gender equity and sustainable cities.

Creating ripples across the sector 

Krystal’s legacy goes far beyond the units she’s preserved.  

The transfer-to-ownership model empowers small and mid-sized non-profits to become property owners, helping organizations build equity. It proves that private capital can be mobilized for public good, creating a replicable blueprint for others across the province. And it shines a spotlight on what the sector could achieve with dedicated acquisition funding and reduced administrative burdens.  

Krystal saw a structural barrier preventing non-profits from protecting affordable housing. She designed a solution that operates at market speed while centering tenant wellbeing. She built partnerships across sectors that few thought possible. And she did it all before turning 30. 

Thousands of units in development. Two properties preserved in Hamilton. Hundreds of tenants protected. A sector inspired to think differently. 

That’s an amazing contribution. That’s changing the game.  

Do you know a young leader that is changing the game? Nominations for the 2026 ONPHA Young Changemaker Award are opening in March. Get ready!