The provincial NDP is promising to introduce legislation to protect tenants from excessive and unreasonable rent increases.

Leader Carla Beck says an NDP government would introduce a Landlord and Tenant Rent Protection Act. It would also protect landlords by bringing back the direct rent payments for social service clients. Beck says the end of direct rent payments has led to a series of missed payments, evictions and increased homelessness.

The NDP also promises to get vacant provincial housing units back on the market, with 500 targeted to be ready for occupancy within the first year. This would be done by reversing a $40 million cut to the renovation budget. Beck says the current government is letting nearly 3,000 provincial housing units sit empty.

Rent increases in Saskatchewan are outpacing inflation, impacting working families and seniors who are no longer able to keep up, according to the NDP leader.