N.B. election: Tenants rights group presses parties to impose cap on rent increases – New Brunswick [Video]

With New Brunswick’s provincial election approaching, a housing advocacy group is calling on the next government to strengthen tenants’ rights, particularly through caps on rent increases.

In a report published Thursday, the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants Rights says renters across the province — disproportionately tenants with disabilities, single parents, and racialized people — fear losing their homes as the cost of shelter rises.

The group surveyed 346 people around the province, three-quarters of whom said they worried about rent increases and one-third said they lived in unsafe conditions.

Tobin LeBlanc Haley, a sociology professor at the University of New Brunswick and report lead author, said the survey results reflect the “absolute unwillingness” of the province to address rental affordability. The group delivered a copy of the report to each of the province’s main political parties.

“I think it’s a handy tool for decision-makers,” LeBlanc Haley said in an interview. …