Raw sewage pumped into this woman's building for months. Officials did nothing

The video shows an old, low-ceilinged basement, the dirt floor flooded with black and brown sludge. A broken cast-iron pipe is visible — the source of a leak spewing raw sewage into the basement of a home in New Glasgow, N.S., for about a year.  

A plumber is walking through the mess, assessing the damage. 

"This has been going on for far too long," said the plumber, Paul MacLeod. "The smell down here is horrific."

Tricia Gallant, 38, was living upstairs in one of the three rental units, experiencing nausea, dizzy spells, sinus infections and brain fog. 

She had an inkling there was a problem, but didn't realize her home was dangerous. 

"When I moved into that place, I was living in my car," Gallant said in an interview. "So I thought it was going to save me, when in reality it just made me sick."

Gallant's living conditions are an extreme example of how low-income tenants stuck in unfit housing can suffer physically and psychologically as they struggle to get repairs and keep a roof over their head. A recent CBC News investigation found renters living in dangerous, dilapidated housing are up against unresponsive landlords and a lack of protective bylaws. 

According to the Canadian Paediatric Society, approximately 30 per cent of households in Canada live in substandard, inadequate or unaffordable housing. It cites the importance of having physicians understand the housing status of patients, including whether they have pest infestations, poor water and air quality or unstable housing. 

One Nova Scotia physician says he sees more patients living in housing that doesn't meet their basic needs, dealing with landlords who don't make repairs and government systems that allow them to fall through the cracks. 

"These are things which are simply unacceptable," said Jabu Mathew Abraham, a family doctor currently working at a clinic in East Preston, N.S. "We all have different tolerance for pain and for suffering, but that doesn't mean that we all have to be subjected to that."

Gallant lived in the rental unit on Edward Street for two years, paying $1,100 monthly, utilities included. She said there were rats, roof leaks and the electricity didn't work in every room — as well as a slight smell of rotten eggs that permeated the home. 

She said her landlord was difficult to get in touch with and avoided doing repairs. But it was a place she could afford on her wages working at Tim Hortons, and she opted to stay. 

The building's landlord did not respond to repeated requests from CBC News.

When the sewage leak was finally discovered by MacLeod on May 1, he said he called the landlord and was told to investigate and repair the leak. But when he realized the severity of the issue, he called the town office and the provincial Department of Environment.