Worried households are spending less on food, selling possessions and borrowing from friends and family in order to meet mortgage and rent payments.

About 360,000 families were forced to pay bills with credit cards in the last year, while around 150,000 households needed to take out loans,
housing charity Shelter has found.

The gloomy findings, included in the charity's report Breaking Point, offer the clearest indication yet that Yorkshire is being hit hard by the combined misery of the credit crunch and rising inflation.

Campaigners claim the situation will only get worse unless the Government steps up its house-building drive and better protects those at risk of losing their homes.

Shelter regional campaigns officer Sharon Oakley said: "Our new research shows just how difficult it is for ordinary people in Yorkshire to cope with spiralling housing costs and how desperately unaffordable housing has become.

"People in the region are going to extraordinary lengths to ensure they pay their rent or mortgage, but the effects of stress or depression, having to sell possessions or deprive the kids of treats can be devastating to family life."

Shelter's survey, carried out by pollsters YouGov, found that six million families – almost a quarter of all households nationwide – were suffering stress or depression because of high housing costs.

One in 12 families said meeting household bills was a constant struggle, while two per cent said they were falling behind with their mortgage and rent payments.

The survey also found that one in four people had cut food spending to pay the bills, one in nine had sold possessions, one in 11 had spent less on clothing for their children, and one in 10 had taken a second job.

One million families spend more than two-thirds of their income on housing, with those on low wages most likely to spend the majority of their earnings on household bills.

One in seven people said they were living in a house that was too small for them, almost one in 10 could not afford to live near their family, 11 per cent were unable to live near their work and 15 per cent could not pay for essential repairs.

The report concludes that the sharp rise in property prices seen over the last decade has created a "vast divide" between those benefiting from the boom and those left behind.

It blames a severe homes shortage, pointing out that 35 per cent of the country's social housing stock has been sold off since Right to Buy schemes were first introduced in England. The situation was made worse between 1997 and 2006, when only 1.45 million new homes were built while the number of households rose by 1.7 million, the document adds.

Shelter's proposed solution to the crisis is set out in a 12-point plan, which demands that the Government fulfils its promises to build three million new homes by 2020 and to build 45,000 social rented homes every year by 2011.

The plan also urges Ministers to make council tax, inheritance tax and stamp duty fairer, and calls for mortgage lenders to repossess properties only as a last resort after home owners have been offered support and guidance.

Miss Oakley said: "The lack of affordable housing in Yorkshire hasn't just been felt by aspiring home owners.

"People renting in the private and social sectors have also experienced the ill-effects of high housing costs.

"With repossessions soaring, private sector rents rising, thousands stuck on the council housing waiting list and thousands more in temporary accommodation, the Government must build more homes, protect people at risk and end the housing divide.

"Now is the time to right housing wrongs."