The issue of affordable housing has been on the table in recent days, since the Housing Trust CEO Michele Adair said she was unimpressed with the council's efforts to date.

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In a report card that measured Illawarra councils in five categories, Wollongong council scored one out of five and earned a D grade.

"For any of our councillors to say either it's somebody else's problem to fix or there's nothing we can do about it shows a misunderstanding of the power that our councils have and their abilities to make a difference," Ms Adair said.

Just days later at Monday night's meeting Cr Mithra Cox tabled a motion calling on council to set an affordable housing target of 30 per cent for all new multi-unit developments and residential rezonings.

"Housing affordability in Wollongong is a really huge problem," Cr Cox told the meeting.

"Certainly everyone in their 20s knows it. Anyone who's got kids in their 20s knows it. In the last 12 months we've had a 23 per cent increase in housing prices.

"We've got 15 suburbs in the Wollongong LGA that now have a median house price of over a million dollars.

"No-one on an ordinary wage can afford to buy a house for a million dollars. Unless you have wealthy parents or already own a property it is simply not possible for you to buy an average house in Wollongong anymore."

That forced people into renting, which Cr Cox said was increasingly expensive and came with "a very large degree of insecurity" due to the possibility of eviction.

"If you've got kids, if you've got work that's nearby that's a really significant amount of insecurity to have hanging over your head," she said.

"Maybe you suddenly have to pack up and move to a new school zone or maybe you're suddenly a long way from work because you can no longer afford to live in the area."

Other councillors were not opposed to moves to increase affordable housing in the Illawarra, they baulked at putting a hard figure on just how much that increase should be.

Cr Cameron Walters said a 30 per cent minimum would likely lead to developers leaving Wollongong and looking to build elsewhere.

Cr Dom Figliomeni commented that any property owner - even those on council - would want to ensure they got the highest possible price when selling.

Ultimately, councillors put forwarded an amended motion that called for council "to maximise affordable housing targets".

That amended motion - without any set figure - passed unanimously.

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