A Program Development Specialist with the Rural Ontario Institute will be making a presentation at the ROMA Conference that opens on January 22 in Toronto.
Iain Storosko says his work is primarily with the Institute's Rural Housing Information System, and he'll be talking about some of the challenges in attracting housing development to rural Ontario.
“Our angle, from the Rural Ontario Institute, is focusing mostly around the data that is needed to build these cases, both for funding for municipalities and private developers to access funding and also build out where the best area for development will be," Storosko explained.
Storosko says it's particularly challenging to provide the incentive for developers to build affordable and rental housing. He says one of those incentives is that type of housing often gets approval much faster.
“So because that often gets approval much faster and when you have the land ready to go and be developed then saving those couple of months of approval can really improve their return on investment. So that creates the incentive for private developers as well," Storosko added.
More information about the schedule of presentations can be found on the ROMA Conference web site. The Conference starts January 22.