For Immediate Release
11 January, 2024
The Leader of Newfoundland and Labrador’s NDP, Jim Dinn (St. John’s Centre), is says the Furey Liberal government to bring in effective rent controls and stop the opportunistic price gouging being seen in the provincial rental market.
“Rental costs are skyrocketing because of the Liberal government’s failure to get a handle on the housing crisis,” said Dinn. “I’ve given the Minister of Digital Government multiple examples where landlords were taking the opportunity to raise rents or evict tenants to replace them with tenants who can afford to pay a higher rate. The Furey Liberals refused to act, despite the Minister acknowledging she has seen the same thing in her district.”
Dinn recently spoke with a landlord who admitted he had increased his charges to tenants not because his own costs had gone up but because he saw the opportunity to do so due to the sheer volume of people looking for homes.
“We understand that costs have increased for small landlords the same as anybody else, so reasonable increases are to be expected. However, we’ve seen cases where the rate increased from $1100 to $2500 overnight. That’s not keeping up with costs, that’s the private market gouging in a crisis,” said Dinn. “The Liberal government needs to bring in effective rent controls and vacancy controls to prevent displacement of tenants, more non-market community-based housing, eliminate the three month no fault eviction rule, and promote transparency by preventing landlords from hiding behind numbered companies. We need a housing plan that works for everyone instead of these reactionary announcements we keep seeing while tenants face eviction, and opportunistic landlords squeeze the market.”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca