that will alleviate rental woes and place homes under rent control.

Realtors and renters have said there is a housing crisis and Government needed to step in to help because the problem had spiralled out of control.

In an effort to alleviate some of the pressure facing tenants who have struggled to pay rents, the Health and Family Services Minister plans to push the bill through at next Friday's session of the House of Assembly.

Last year, the Rent Increases (Domestic Premises) Control Amendment Act was rejected by the Senate because it was deemed controversial.

Opposition Senate Leader Maxwell Burgess said he was opposed to the bill because it would ultimately hurt middle class black and senior home owners.

"This form of rent control is discriminatory,'' he said. "It hits those people who have worked hard, especially seniors who are relying on this as a retirement fund.'' Sen. Burgess added that the bill could also scare potential home-owners away from the market.

"It's my prediction that they will drive a lot of people away from the market,'' he said. "It's not encouraging anyone to invest in a home, because they would be losing money on their investment.'' But the legislation only seeks to maintain protection for tenants who were protected before land valuations were updated last year.

When rent control was introduced in 1971, homes with an annual rental value (ARV) of $9,900 were legislated to fall under its jurisdiction as a means of protecting tenants from unfair rent increases, price gauging and unfair evictions by landlords.

According to Rent Commissioner Eugene Foley, the former Government instituted an incentive programme to encourage people to build rental units, which included exempting them from rent control.

"The incentive was introduced at a time when Government was unable to meet the demands for housing,'' Mr. Foley said. "Government had introduced the Bermuda Housing Corporation, but homes could not be built fast enough to meet the demand,'' he added.

But he admitted that while this had worked well in the 1980's, problems began to arise in the 1990's with both tenants and landlords feeling they were being treated unequally.

"The Minister is trying to level the playing field and recoup protection for tenants who lost it when the ARV'S increased,'' Mr. Foley said.

Mr. Foley revealed a drastic decrease in the number of units currently under his control from 4,500 to 1,700.

Prior to the ARV increases, a total of 12,700 units had ARV's of $9,900 or less and only 4,500 of them were actual rental units that fell under rent control.

The remaining 8,200 units were a mixture of owner occupied units and units which fell under the 1983 exemption.

But after ARV's increased, only 3,000 units were valued at $9,900 or less.

"The passage of the amendment would bring 13,000 units under rent control,'' Mr. Foley said. "I would say that about half of those units would be owner occupied and the remainder would all be rental units under our control.'' However Mr. Burgess insisted that this would not help the housing "crisis'', instead it only looked to make it harder for home owners.

"It's a double edged sword,'' he said. "They control what exists, but they stop what might come into the market.

"If Government is hell bent on going down this road, there will be a continued rise in the housing crisis.''