Canada’s federal housing agency is lending billions of dollars to boost construction of rental homes without routinely disclosing the recipients of the money or where the units are being built, shrouding in secrecy a program designed to address the country’s housing shortfall by providing developers with low-cost financing.

The Rental Construction Financing Initiative is one of Ottawa’s major efforts to boost home construction. It was announced in 2016 with $2.5-billion in funding, which has grown to more than $25-billion, making it the largest program in the government’s National Housing Strategy, a bundle of different initiatives intended to improve access to affordable units.

RCFI is administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which as of this summer had committed to $13.6-billion in loans through the program. The developers receiving the money have pledged to build roughly 38,300 rental units, according to a Globe and Mail review of figures prepared by CMHC and tabled in the House of Commons.

The figures were scrubbed of many key details. Notably, CMHC redacted the provinces or territories where projects that received $9.2-billion in loan commitments through RCFI were going to be built. Together, they accounted for more than 24,000 units.

In many cases, CMHC has entered conditional agreements with developers, who must fulfill certain criteria before final agreements are signed and the money is handed over. About $10.9-billion in loans had progressed past the conditional stage. And most of that money – around $6.7-billion – was earmarked for construction in locations that have not been publicly disclosed.

Keep reading on theglobeandmail.com