Rural Ontario Institute Hosting Webinar on Accessing Housing Data in Rural Ontario

by Bob Montgomery

The Rural Ontario Institute is hosting a webinar this Wednesday. Senior Data Analyst Danielle Letang says the webinar will showcase the Rural Ontario Institute's new Housing Dashboard that provides free insight into housing data that they got from the census. Letang says they'll also be presenting the Rural Housing Information System, which is now available for people who would like a membership. Letang says the event is particularly targeted towards people who are in the non-profit building sector.

Letang says the Rural Housing Information System makes information available to rural communities and she says that sounds fairly simple and like something that should already be happening, but she says it isn't. She says right now it's very difficult for rural municipalities to find information about their current housing contacts and the other key pieces of information that they might need to know. Letang says this system brings a lot of information from different sources together and helps paint a clear picture of what's going on in their communities. Things like what is the housing supply, what are the housing needs, what are all the demographic and economic factors that they would need to know. It also has local information such as things like servicing. Letang says it really helps people understand where there's a need to build and what they should be building.

Letang says rural municipalities all over Ontario are dealing with the same housing crisis, so it makes sense for them to talk with each other about what they're doing to address the problem and having the most current information should help to stimulate those conversations. More information about the webinar and how to register can be found on the Rural Ontario Institute website.