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J By IRENE GENTLE The Champion Single seniors are amnong the hardest hit in Halton's affordable housing cmunch. And rentera are fînding it tougher to make ends meet than homeowners. Those are the resuita from a recent affordable housing survey, mailed randomly to 23,000 Halton householda. 0f those that were returned, about 67 per cent were filled out by homeowners, with the remain- der retumned by renters, the Region's health and social services committee heard Tuesday. The survey found that more than 13,000 house- "IVery Mite new,aufr"*bl houaig là belug huit." holds in Halton are spending more than 30 pet cent of their grosa income on ahelter. 0f those, about 11,000 are low-income rentera earning less than $30,000. Struggling most are seniors, single parents with children and the working poor, reported Gwen Maloney, director of the Halton Non-Profit Housing Corporation Division. 'Thousands of households are at risk of Iosing their housing because of unaffordability or inade- quacy," she said. "And very uie new, affordable housing is being buiIL" To meet the need, Ms Maloney believes 14,500 units of assisted housing wiIl be required over the next decade. Today, about 5,000 householda are headed by seniors eaming lest than $30,000 per year. But there are only 1,790 aatisted units for seniors, carrying a wait list of about eight years. Alto, the survey revealed that about 6,700 low- income singles are spending more than 30 per cent of their incomes on shelter. so»e FINDING on page 20 Comment........ 6 Datolns ....... 13 A&E ........... 14 NS Report ......23 Sports ......27-29 Classimed . ... .30-33 M Mà dM, 1 Single seniors are hit the hardest in affordable housing crunch:e survey