When Naomi François’ landlords told her to find another place because they needed the space for their own children, the 31-year-old mother of one believed she would be living in a new apartment within three months. That was five months ago, and François and her roommate are still trying to find that livable space at a reasonable rent.

“They’re too small and too expensive,” said François, an X-ray technologist and nutritionist, of the six two-bedroom apartments they have visited. “They’re a little bit bigger than a walk-in closet; if you have a king-sized bed, you can’t move in with it.”

François’ predicament is common among Haitians, who are feeling the pinch of the affordable housing shortage.

Throughout New York and other U.S. cities, residents are finding it difficult to find a place to live within their budgets. In Manhattan, the average buying price for a 1-bedroom apartment reached $1 million as of April, analysts say. The statistic is new, but the problem has been developing for many years. As the wealthy found living in Manhattan unaffordable and spread into the other boroughs, traditional neighborhoods of immigrant residents have gotten out of their reach.

Realtors said several factors are heating up the real estate market nationwide – from the lull in the economy to young families seeking more space. But the trail goes cold when seeking to accommodate the financially challenged. Brooklyn’s elected officials say there isn’t enough vacant land to build new units for the price range that low-income immigrant residents could afford. Haitian residents have resorted to doubling and tripling up in apartments and homes.

“They live like mice now,” said Temitope Ojetunde, a real estate appraiser and broker at Channel Realty on Nostrand Avenue that serves many Haitian clients. “A lot of people have carved out their houses. They’re cutting up the rooms.”

Inside a two-story cream-colored frame house on Rogers Avenue, the owner had divided the second floor of the single-family dwelling into four rooms and rented it out to three different families. They share one bathroom and kitchen, while the owner’s family lives on first the floor and basement.

The largest family, made up of two parents and their three kids who arrived from Haiti a few months ago, is paying $550 for two rooms smaller than some office cubicles. A brother-sister team with whom it shares a padlocked connecting door pays $350. For the room facing the street, a man in his 20s pays $275 and allows his friends to sleep over.

The tenants did not want to be identified because they feared the landlord’s reaction and are not sure where to turn if they were to be kicked out.

“It’s because of circumstances,” the $350-room tenant said. “I didn’t have any money.”

That tenant, a security guard, said he lives with his sister, who occupied that room first, after funeral expenses to bury his father left him broke. At least now, he said, he saves some money for another place.

“I can afford $750 to $800. But $1,000 to $1,200 - I can’t,” he said. With rent of a one-bedroom unit in Flatbush at $700 to $900, he might have some luck. Ojetunde said two-bedroom apartments are rented for $1,150 to $1,300, compared with $600 to $650 a month five years ago.

The two- to four-family buildings that house most families in the neighborhood sell for $400,000 to $600,000, he said, a big change from the $250,000 to $300,000 sellers asked for five years ago. “Prices of homes have skyrocketed,” said Ojetunde, who appraises about six homes weekly, in addition to those he sells.

Elena Dumas, a companion to disabled people, said she pays $742 a month for her studio, up from $550 when she first moved to the Glenwood Road unit eight years ago. The renewed lease is $65 more a month, meaning she will pay more than $800 next year.

“For one year, it jumped too much,” said Dumas, who said she helps to support her daughter in college.

Carl Morgan, a senior real estate appraiser at Channel Realty, said explaining the affordable housing shortage is complex. People who came to New York City cannot afford Manhattan prices and are spilling over into areas, such as Park Slope and Fort Greene, which are close enough to it that they commute to work fast, he said.

But while the more prosperous are moving in, not enough new structures are being built to accommodate the new and older residents, Morgan said. Those will less income, then, are moving to New Jersey and Queens.

Immigrants may have a harder time of finding an apartment because landlords have become more selective, Morgan said. “It’s a question of how you can fit in quickly, if you have a good job, your credit and whether you have a record [in housing court],” said Morgan, a realtor for more than 30 years.

Ojetunde said one strategy that’s affecting the immigrant tenants is the influx of the Jewish community into predominantly black neighborhoods of Central Brooklyn.

A couple years ago, Jewish homebuyers began offering homeowners cash to sell their homes. Some black homeowners jumped at the offers, so more properties have returned into Jewish hands, Morgan said.

One Haitian-American affected by this ethnic shift is Anne Merci Lafleur, who said the new Jewish owner of her Newkirk Avenue building has raised the rent to financially force her out of the apartment she has occupied for 25 years. A housing court judge issued an order of eviction against the home attendant effective in March; Lafleur is appealing the decision.

“He wants me out so he can raise the rent [on the next tenant],” said Lafleur, citing that the rents were raised after other neighbors were evicted. “If I could find a place, I would have moved already.”

There are little services to help those who want to live on their own. Seniors and other residents may qualify for housing subsidies, but immigrants who lack the required documentation are out of luck. And living conditions leave a lot to be desired, many say.

The Neighborhood Housing Services sites in East Flatbush and Crown Heights offer homeowners assistance by providing information on low-interest loans, training on how to do basic repairs, improving one’s property. Their mandate, however, does not include helping residents locate affordable homes.

Some nonprofit groups try to match people looking to rent with landlords or roommates by posting listings on a bulletin board.

Some, such as François, said they believe apartment brokers charge too high a fee - usually one month’s rent. While they buddy-up with friends and relatives to split the rent or mortgage, home hunters rely on word-of-mouth for a good deal and they beat the pavement.

François has been told on many occasions that an advertised apartment she saw is no longer available, but she continues going through the apartment listings in newspapers, asking friends, and walking around various neighborhoods, hoping for signs of vacancy.

She could afford to pay a maximum of $1,000 a month for the two-bedroom, but those she was interested in were available at a minimum of $1,200 a month in Flatbush and Canarsie.

“I’m still looking,” François said. “I have to find something.”