Where in the city do people struggle most to pay for their homes?
(The Star Toronto Raptors)

It comes as no surprise to Anna Agha that the condo she rents is part of a neighbourhood with one of the highest percentages of residents putting too large a portion of their income toward housing costs in the city. “It is quite expensive,” said the 31-year-old as she walked her baby in a stroller around Alton Towers Cir. — a condo-laden area in Scarborough where she and her husband moved six months ago to be close to his work. Read more: The Star looks at the present and the future of Toronto housing“We are thinking of moving after the lease is up,” she said, adding that they chose the location because the older, more spacious condominiums on Alton Towers Cir. were a better option for her family than the newer ones they looked at downtown.Shelter costs are taking up about 50 per cent of their household budget at the moment, she estimated on the spot. Census data from 2016 released Wednesday show the small community contained by Alton Towers Cir., east of McCowan Rd., is one of the two places in the city where 60 per cent of households spend 30 per cent or more of their income on housing costs — the highest percentage in Toronto. The other neighbourhood was at Woodbine Ave. and Hwy. 7 in Markham. Statistics Canada uses 30 per cent of income spent on housing as a benchmark to determine whether households have an “affordability” problem. In Toronto in 2016, 33 per cent of households spent more than the benchmark on shelter, compared with 28 per cent in Ontario and 24 per cent in Canada.That’s a slight increase from the 2011 and 2006 census numbers, both of which showed approximately 32 per cent of Toronto households overspent the benchmark for affordable housing. Read more:Highlights from the 2016 censusHome ownership rates drop as more young Canadians opt to rent: censusHousing repairs are most badly needed in these two GTA communitiesUniversity of Toronto geography professor Deb Cowen said a number of factors ...