The report on short term rentals says the number of STRs in HRM have risen by 20 per cent in the last year

The NDP housing critic says the province's survey on short term rentals is limited.

Lisa Roberts says the survey suggests the McNeil government is not concerned about housing security.

Both the province and HRM have each released their own surveys asking the public for their input but roberts tells NEWS 95.7 the province's survey is lacking in several areas.

"The questions have been framed, and the consultation has been framed around how does this work for the tourism industry," says Roberts. "The province has been quite clear that it's not interested in looking at the impact of short term rentals on housing affordability, and so the questions are largely around that."

The report on short term rentals shows they have risen roughly 20 per cent in the last year alone in HRM.

"So it's making it very challenging, I'd say we see the impact in a number of ways, one impact is that because there is such a tight squeeze on rentals in the north end of Halifax, it means that what is left is more expensive," says Roberts."

However, those numbers and results aren't surprising to Roberts who says this is negatively impacting many residents.

"It's become very obvious at a neighbourhood level that there has been a huge proliferation of short term rentals, and certainly my constituency office, there's been a significant increase in people contacting us because of their difficulty in finding a place to live," explains Roberts.

The NDP have repeatedly raised affordable housing as an urgent topic that must be addressed by the provincial government.