During the recent heat wave, Millicent Asamoah said she heard from clients who couldn’t afford an air conditioner, let alone pay for the electricity to keep it running.

Asamoah, a counsellor who has worked at the Rexdale Women’s Centre for 10 years, sees daily how unaffordable this city can be for many.

“It’s very hard for them to take good care of themselves,” she said.

Who this city is affordable for and what can be done about the growing inequality are questions city council members have been asking at budget time for the last four years, that advocates have been demanding city council do more to address, and, according to a recent Forum poll, are top of mind for Toronto residents.

The Star has partnered with Forum ahead of the Oct. 22 election to look at the issues that matter most to Torontonians, and to take those concerns to the candidates.

As daycare becomes an extravagant expense for many, rents push youth out of the city and away from jobs that are hard to come by, and families are forced to make impossible choices, the poll results say overall affordability is the most pressing issue facing the city.

Out a broad list of topics, a quarter (26 per cent) of the more than 2,500 people surveyed said affordability is the biggest problem. Just six per cent said property taxes were of top concern and 19 per cent said traffic gridlock. Other topics on the list were public transit (18 per cent), social housing (13 per cent), traffic safety (seven per cent) and privatization of services (four per cent). Six per cent said “something else” was their biggest concern.

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The telephone survey of randomly selected Torontonians over the age of 18 was conducted June 29-30 using interactive voice response. It is considered accurate plus or minus three per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Affordability was among the top issues for residents in all four corners of the city. It was the biggest concern in the former City of Toronto, North York, York and Scarborough. It was the second biggest in Etobicoke behind traffic gridlock (Results by district are less reliable because of smaller sample sizes).

The poll is meant to be a starting point for a deeper conversation about what kind of city voters want and how to build it. It’s a snapshot of how residents were feeling at a point in time. Over the coming weeks, the Star will be examining housing, transit, road safety, and what an affordable city looks like.

Today, the numbers are stark.

Toronto remains the child poverty capital of Canada, with more than one in four children living in low-income households. As the income gap in the city has widened, Toronto remained the most expensive city for infant and toddler child care at a median $1,758 a month and $1,354 a month for full-time care, or $21,096 and $16,248 annually, according to a 2017 study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Toronto was also the most expensive rental city in Canada as of July, according to listings site PadMapper, which regularly analyzes rental data in major cities. The median listed rent for a one-bedroom unit was $2,080, and $2,800 for two bedrooms.

While the city committed to a poverty reduction strategy under Mayor John Tory, staff recently reported that 20 per cent of the planned initiatives in 2017 had been only partially completed or deferred.

“Our front-line child protection workers visit hundreds of families each week,” said Children’s Aid Society of Toronto community worker Michael Polanyi. “What they see, again and again, are families unable to afford basics like food, adequate housing, health, dental care and transit.”

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Asamoah says in the past decade she’s seen how living in part of the city she works in has become more difficult for many.

“A lot of my clients, they live in this neighbourhood and the rent is so expensive,” she said. They often choose between basic necessities like groceries and TTC tokens. Affording daycare while trying to keep steady work or get to classes at times seems impossible.

She encourages mothers to bring their children into the centre to use the internet for homework so they can save on bills. Many, she said, are newcomers to the city with extra challenges.

“I try my best to give them the best I can do,” she said. “It’s not easy for a lot of them.”