Roommates, Multi-Generational Homes Rising Amid Increasing Costs, Immigration: Census

Aaron Ottho poses in this undated handout photo. Ottho never imagined he'd still be renting a condo with a roommate by the time he hit 40 years old, but months after celebrating his fourth decade, that's exactly the situation he found himself in. The Canadian Press/HO-Aaron Ottho

When Gina Athanasiou’s father died in 2016, she realized her mother, who bounced between Canada and Greece for most of her life, didn’t have a pension large enough to cover the soaring costs of a Toronto home.

The solution? Athanasiou, a real estate agent, invited her mother to move into the East York home she lived in with her husband and children.