A data analyst with the Rural Ontario Institute says they've been working with the Eastern Wardens Caucus to create an innovative digital tool that will provide support to municipalities in how they do planning and construction of new affordable housing.
Danielle Letang says there has been a widespread shortage of information.
"There's just been a widespread shortage of information about housing, or the housing context, in rural areas and so the purpose of our project is to address this information gap by collecting information about rural areas."
Letang says they would then provide that information to the public on an easy to use public dashboard. She adds this a pilot project at this time, but whatever they find that works in Eastern Ontario would also be transferable to Western and Northern Ontario. She says the goal at this point is to help municipalities determine what their needs are.
"What we intend to do with the tool is show communities that are in need of affordable housing units and we will also show what grants or incentive programs municipalities would be offering to developers to build in those areas."
Letang says if they can help developers get the information they need to determine where they can build that will lead to an increase in the housing supply.