Despite having the second largest provider of social housing in the province, thousands of Ottawa families remain on the waiting list for a place to live, forcing many to seek rooms in the city's shelters.

Earlier this month, the Community Foundation of Ottawa outlined the crisis facing shelters in the capital, indicating more than 5,000 women were turned away last year due to lack of space.

"Typically, for every woman who comes in, we turn away at least five," said Leighann Burns of Harmony House, a women's shelter in the capital.

According to Burns, there's enough demand in Ottawa to immediately fill three more shelters in the city. Still, she says building more shelters is not the best way to deal with the situation.

"You can't keep stacking people up in shelters, something has to give. We haven't had a national housing strategy in many years in this country. The feds need to invest in housing because people have no place to go," she said.

Social housing in need of millions

Social housing in Ottawa, however, is dealing with many of its own challenges. A sobering report released Tuesday suggests a majority of families living in Ottawa housing units are living in poor and unacceptable conditions.

The report advises it will cost the city about $332 million over the next five years to bring its aging subsidized housing units to acceptable standards.

"I feel I'm being abused because I'm poor," said Dorian Parchment, an Ottawa resident who depends on Ottawa social housing.

It's a situation the CEO of the Ottawa Housing Corporation says she's aware of and is working to fix.

"Our buildings are very clearly in poor condition. This is something we need to address with additional funding and a very strategic plan going forward," said Jo-anne Poirier.

Challenges facing the city

Currently, there are 9,000 families on the waiting list for low-income housing in the capital.

Coun. Diane Holmes told CTV Ottawa part of the problem can be traced back to units that were abandoned by the federal and provincial governments over the years.

"They built the housing and then they walked away without providing sufficient funding to maintain the housing," said Holmes.

"We need to make sure city council understands this problem too and does consider this a piece of infrastructure, just like roads and sewers."

Coun. Alex Cullen agreed: "Obviously, we're going to have to do work to give them acceptable housing. So this is something we all need to work on. We just can't ring our hands here, we all have to pitch in."

Still, despite the poor conditions, many who have a spot in one of Ottawa's social housing units say they are just happy to have a place to live.

"I am very grateful for having accommodation here. I am very, very, very grateful," said housing resident Charity Gasesepe.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Joanne Schnurr and Catherine Lathem