In April, councillors asked region officials to set up consultations with developers to figure out how Peel could best partner with builders to bring more social housing units online.

According to staff, the last couple of tenders put out by the region on housing projects have attracted little interest from developers, and the consultation meetings were a means to figure out why.

As such, municipal representatives hosted four meetings whereby industry reps presented key challenges faced by the private sector in building affordable units.

And although industry participants presented a wide range of issues, municipal officials told councillors yesterday that factors working against Peel essentially boils down to four- those being the availability of land, its cost, approval processes and timeframes and the high cost of development.

"Number one, there isn't a lot of land and what is available is very costly," said Janet Menard, Peel's executive director of human services. "The second grouping of issues was around approval processes and timeframes. The developers feel that they are very cumbersome and as well there is no certainty around the timeframes; often approval process can go on and on and those delays add costs to the developers."

There are about 13,000 families on a waiting list for housing in Peel, a number that outpaces every other municipality in the Greater Toronto Area.

A recent report on affordable housing referred to Peel's social housing situation as "dismal."

Menard explained a huge challenge is the high cost of development.

Construction costs are rising for both labour and materials and securing financing of such projects is difficult, especially in the face of an economic slowdown.

"Financiers expect significant down payments on what they are financing and a reasonable return in investment," Menard said. "The developers are seeing the availability of funds shrinking."

Of course, money and government red tape are just a couple examples of the challenges posed to developers.

The "Not in My Backyard" (NIMBY) attitude of some residents also weighs huge on the region's ability to make a real impact on its 21 year waiting list for affordable housing.

"Beyond the normal zoning challenges associated with building, there are additional challenges when you are building affordable or social housing related to rezoning and NIMBY. Those challenges add both costs and time to the process," Menard said.

Meetings held with developers and home builders were also intended to produce ideas on how to kick start production on social housing.

Menard pointed to ideas already touted by the region, such as surplus land policies whereby excess municipal land is set aside for such projects, the redevelopment of grey or brownfield sites, and the revamping of existing social housing properties run by Peel.

Following this route would do a lot to bring the cost of building such sites down.

Other ways to reduce the price tag on social housing developments could be through tax increment financing, whereby property taxes are phased in over time or through municipal financing where Peel Region finances development at a reduced rates of interest.

"There are a number of things we could do to reduce costs for developers that we have some control over," said Menard adding Peel could also look to corporate sponsors to help cover some costs. "There are some good examples of this out there."

Some councillors appreciated the notion that municipalities can find more efficient and creative ways to build more social housing stock, but very little can actually be accomplished without getting senior levels of government involved.

"I don't realy want to waste a lot of time on this. It's become the weather. We all talk about it but no one does anything about it," charged Mississauga Coun. Nando Iannicca. "