Statistics in the recently released Census 2000 do not give a clear picture of Bermuda's housing crisis, affordable housing advocates claimed yesterday.

While the number of available units has increased, single women with children and others still face considerable discrimination in the market and the poverty line does not adequately account for the high rents which are being paid.

And the situation may be stressing the Island's population to the point that it drives up rates of alcohol and drug abuse, one advocate suggested.

The Census reported an overall increase in housing stock on the Island of 12 percent, taking the total number of dwelling units to 24,761.

But with a reported 25,148 households (with an average household size of 2.47 people), Bermuda still has a serious shortage of at least 385 dwelling units.

And that does not take into account the fact that many high-end units are simply not available to the average Bermuda household, said Sheelagh Cooper of The Coalition for Protection of Children yesterday.

She claimed Bermuda continues to see high-end units remain empty as they are priced well beyond the average renter's capacity to pay.

"The units that are empty are not affordable by any means," Mrs. Cooper said. "What's empty are very high-end, expensive homes. There is nothing empty in even the medium range portion and at the lower end there are families to fill them than units."

According to the Census report, only four percent of households are paying in excess of $4,000 per month in rent which seems to fly against properties commonly advertised for rent.

Rents on units of three-bedrooms or more jumped 57 percent between 1991 and 2000, according to the report, the largest increase in any type of dwelling unit.

Ms Cooper said it must be recognised that with most of the extremely high rent units, international companies are subsidising the rent to an extent which belies the figures.

"People aren't actually paying those amounts," she said. They may pay only a small portion of it, if anything."

According to the Census, ten percent of units are subsidised either privately or by Government assistance.

Meanwhile, single Bermudian women with children continue to face discrimination in the housing market when the rare, affordable units pops up.

"There is discrimination against Bermudians in general," Ms Cooper said. "Single women with children don't stand a chance. They are at the bottom of the food chain as far as housing is concerned."

Rosemary Pedro of the People's Coalition for Affordable Housing said that even if landlords don't specifically intend to discriminate against single mothers, the availability of seeming more desirable tenants may lead them to.

"Single parents are suffering from a bad rap," Ms Pedro said. "It is very difficult to be considered credible as a single parent - and there are a lot of single parents. The reality is that the private housing sector is not aimed at them."

While the newly released statistics also reported a 13 percent decline in poverty among single-parent families from 1991 to 2000 (from 50 percent to 37 percent) when stacked against a 28 percent increase in rents overall, the situation for many families may have worsened.

Ms Cooper suggested that drawing the poverty line at $35,831 (households earning less than half the median income at 2000 of $71,662) is misleading given Bermuda's high rents.

One standard measure of poverty is that an individual should not spend more than one third of their income on rent, she added.

"But if you look in the paper on any given day, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $2,400," Ms Cooper said. "Then, you have to be making well over $72,000 a year (to meet this standard). People are paying more like two-thirds of their income in rent."

The yardstick to measure poverty may be drawn inaccurately if rents are not taken into account, she added.

Ms Pedro agreed with this analysis.