NDP leader Gary Burrill said people are struggling to keep up with the rising costs of rent

The provincial NDP have revealed the main issues they are going to focus on in the upcoming session of the legislature, and one of the biggest is pursuing rent control.

NDP leader Gary Burrill said people are struggling to keep up with the rising costs of rent.

At a news conference Tuesday, he said 20 per cent of renters are spending more than half of their income on housing.

"In all of our constituency offices, we are increasingly meeting people who are confronting increases in their rents in the hundreds of dollars, or who are being displaced from their homes because the landlords are transitioning the units into Airbnbs."

He believes rent control is the obvious solution.

"The solution is present in other provinces. It's a solution that was present in this province until the Liberals did away with it in 1993," Burrill said.

Housing support worker Michelle Malette was also at the news conference, and said she deals with clients daily who are being forced out of their homes because of skyrocketing rents.

"It's definitely a landlords' market right now because our vacancy rate is around 1.6 per cent, and it hasn't been below 2 per cent since 1990," Malette said.

She said, unlike other affordable housing initiatives, rent control would benefit all 40 per cent of Haligonians who are tenants.

Other NDP priorities for the fall session include the Green Jobs Act and access to mental health services.