Meet Canberra's working poor.

In a rich city, they live on struggle street with a considerable number of others.

Thirteen per cent of households in the capital cannot afford one week's holiday a year, 11 per cent spend more than they receive, 10 per cent of homes cannot afford a night out once a fortnight and 7 per cent have borrowed from friends or family.

These federal government figures indicating financial stress are compounded for those who aspire to something better and realise a median-priced house in the ACT costs six times the average annual wage.

This is a tough ask in a territory where 9 per cent of households would not be able to raise $2000 in an emergency.

With welfare agencies warning that low-income earners are rapidly being priced out of even the most basic rental properties in Canberra, some workers themselves have revealed how they make ends meet.

Mary Osborne puts in full-time hours as an aged-care worker only to, after knocking off, stack shelves at a supermarket.

''I wouldn't be able to pay a car off if I didn't work a second job,'' the 53-year-old says.

If clients die, a regular occurrence in the aged-care industry, the income for workers is reduced while a replacement client is found.

Osborne was recently on reduced pay for two years because this happened. Her gross aged-care income has fluctuated between $500 and $900 a week.

Her wage is well below that of the average Canberra household, which spends $1536 a week on goods and services, including housing, which is more than any other capital city in the country, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Added to this, a large chunk of her wage is spent on petrol because she drives between properties, although the profitable margin in her fuel allowance would be much less than in other parts of Australia.

Canberra is the second-most expensive capital in the country to buy fuel - it is 15¢ more a litre than the national average and dearer than in most regional centres around the ACT.

Osborne helps the elderly, showering them and putting them to bed, but can only afford to live in public housing.

Others, however, are not so fortunate.

The standard waiting time for public housing in the ACT is now 659 days, while people seeking community housing wait an average of 545 days.

Lauren Hampton, a childcare worker who lives in a share house, moved from Bathurst to accept a job in Canberra but soon realised the average house or unit costs at least $100,000 more here.

''It's disheartening,'' she said.

While she might not be able to buy a home until well into her 30s based on her present income, some in the childcare sector are doing it harder.

One of her non-university educated colleagues had to work two jobs for nine years.

Welfare groups are calling on the federal and ACT governments to increase assistance for renters struggling to afford housing.

Anglicare ACT director Jenny Kitchin said recently that prices across the border had increased and reduced opportunities for low-income earners in the ACT.

''Queanbeyan, which in past decades was the solution to affordable housing for Canberra workers, now has rental prices approaching the unaffordability levels in Canberra,'' she said.

''Persons employed in lower-paid industries or reliant on Centrelink benefits have next to no options in this market.''

A recent Deutsche Bank survey said Australia was one of the most expensive countries in the world, a statement that must put Canberra - which has some of the highest housing prices in the country, along with petrol and grocery prices at least as high as most other places - among the most financially burdensome cities globally to live in.

Gainfully employed young adults in apprenticeships, such as Josh Davies, are being forced to stay at home because there is no hope they can support themselves earning $8 an hour in one of Australia's most affluent cities.

''I would have really struggled [out of home],'' says Davies, whose financial situation has improved since finishing his apprenticeship.

Lyndal Ryan, the secretary of ACT's United Voice, a union representing some of the lowest-paid industries, says for decades financial liability has been shifted from governments to workers.

''Now people pay for telephone lines to the house and for tolls on roads,'' she said. ''To cope they work excessive hours. In the cleaning industry it's really common for people to work 12 hours a day.

''And they rely on overtime, which is scary because [the overtime] can stop suddenly.''

Canberra cleaner Ajah Deng, who fled conflict in Sudan that killed her husband, has about $600 left over each month after rent to pay for food, utilities and transport - she catches a bus 30 kilometres one way to work.

She supports her son and also sends money to her widowed sister-in-law in Kenya.

''I always put my name down on the overtime board,'' she said.

with EWA KRETOWICZ