Rental clearinghouse in the works

The City of Yorkton will establish an electronic clearinghouse for housing inquiries.

"The purpose of this clearinghouse would be to have landlords or property owners provide information on rental units available by them. This might include suites within apartment buildings, homes for rent, secondary suites or boarding rooms. The intent is to have a 'One Stop' location for information for persons both inside and outside of this community," detailed a report circulated at the regular meeting of Yorkton Council Monday, where the decision to proceed with the listing was an unanimous one.

This matter has been formally discussed by the Economic Development Committee, the Planning & Infrastructure Commission and the Housing Committee. All three boards supported the concept and directed administration to proceed to City Council for formal approval, explained Gord Shaw, Director of Planning & engineering with the City.

"Administration now receives inquiries about accommodations and generally refers them to other sources. If this electronic clearinghouse could be put on the website, they may be directed to this service. This may not assist in reducing the number of inquiries that administration receives but it allows them to direct the person to a data base the city has created," stated the report.

Building Services administration will look after the updating of the website once it is fully established with the assistance of the IT Department. Administration believes that once the ground work is prepared, administering the website should not significantly impact the work flow of Building Services.