Almost half a million US households lack indoor plumbing: ‘The conditions are inhumane’

Renters and people of color are most likely to be living without water or flushing toilets in some of America's wealthiest cities, new research shows

Yan Yu Lin and her seven-year-old daughter live in a tight studio in San Francisco's Chinatown, in a century-old building where 60 or so residents on each floor share a bathroom.

Along the back wall of the room is a plastic potty - the kind designed for toilet training toddlers. The shared bathrooms are out of order so often, so rank and unhygienic, that Lin has her daughter use the plastic potty instead. It's safer," she said.