Four million Canadians live in inadequate housing: report

OTTAWA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nearly four million Canadians, among them 750,000 children under the age of 15, are living in inadequate housing, according to a report released Thursday.

That figure represents 13 percent of all Canadian households, a percentage that has not changed since 2001.

These families either live in accommodation that is in the state of disrepair, is unsuitable for the number of people living there or eats up more than 30 percent of the household's pre-tax income.

The report was prepared for the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada is based on analysis of the most recent data (2006) provided by Canada Housing and Mortgage Corp.

It finds that seniors, younger Canadians, new Canadians, aboriginals and the jobless were among those most likely to have inadequate shelter.

For instance, 26 percent of single-parent families were in inadequate housing, compared with 13 percent of all households who are in this condition.

Immigrants were more likely to live in inadequate housing than non-immigrants. Households whose primary wage earner was unemployed were three times more likely to be in deficient housing than households where the chief breadwinner was employed.

Aboriginal households were substantially more likely to be in inadequate housing than non-aboriginals. The margin was 20.4 percent to 12.4 percent.