I REFER to the report, ‘Uproar over new rental flats going up’ (Feb 9).

People who raise this issue should be reminded that they too live in public housing.

Do not pigeonhole people in the lower-income groups as loud and aggressive and complain that living near these residents will lower the value of your property.

Even owners of multimillion- dollar property have no say in developments coming up in their neighbourhood.

Christine Ng (Madam)

Source: Straits Times, 22 Feb 2010

I REFER to yesterday’s letter by Mr Dennis Lee, ‘Distressed by divisions’, and agree it is unhealthy to create an artificial divide between those who rent and those who buy an HDB flat.

The image of HDB rental flat dwellers has been created by the application criteria and the design of the flats, typically the one-bedroom type sharing a long common corridor. Apart from the HDB application criterion of a household income of $1,500, other factors can better describe the fabric of this close-knit group of citizens, which Mr Lee aptly describes: ‘We knew our neighbours well and even exchanged gifts on festive occasions.’

These include their past contribution to nation building, residents’ knowledge of one another in the community, their fluency in dying dialects, their participation in activities that promote social cohesion, their culinary skills in disappearing local dishes, the success of their children like Mr Lee, and their performance in the town council maintenance assessment.

Perhaps HDB can consider building bigger units among rental flats to change the image of HDB tenants from that of low-income families to occupants of choice housing.

Patrick Sio

Source: Straits Times, 18 Feb 2010

I READ the report, ‘Uproar over new rental flats going up’ (Feb 9), with great concern. Although Singapore is a developed country, we have somehow created divisions in our cohesive society.

People are now more self-centred. Some look at the type of flats they live in and conclude that having rental flats around theirs will lower the value of their property. Some assume that people who live in rental flats are trouble makers.

I grew up in a rental flat in Hoy Fatt Road and later moved to the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) quarters. When my mother retired from PSA, we moved to Telok Blangah Drive, renting a one-room and one-hall flat in Block 45. Our doors were open most of the time. We knew our neighbours well and even exchanged gifts on festive occasions.

Today, many people live in large flats but the doors are closed and neighbours hardly know one another.

Smokers and drinkers are everywhere, but they should not be seen as an unwanted group. Foreign workers are here to help Singapore by doing jobs Singaporeans are not interested in. Without them, many jobs in the cleaning and construction sectors would remain unfilled.

We should not segregate fellow citizens with comments and undesirable attitudes.All Singaporeans should bond together to ensure a better living environment.

Now my family lives in a three-room flat in Tiong Bahru. But if one day we had to move to a rental flat, would we be regarded as potential trouble makers?

Since we are from the lower-income group, I am deeply concerned and distressed.

Dennis Lee

Source: Straits Times, 17 Feb 2010

TAMPINES and Pasir Ris residents are fretting about new rental flats in their neighbourhood – and the whole affair has a sense of deja vu about it.

Two years ago, private residents in Serangoon Gardens threw a fit when they got wind of plans to locate a foreign worker dormitory there. Now, these HDB home owners are upset about new rental blocks they fear will block their breeze and devalue their homes.

It’s hard not to see the parallels. In the Serangoon Gardens’ case, the bogeyman was the drunken foreign worker cum molester. In Tampines, it’s the drug addict with three hungry children in tow.

One resident summed his fears thus: ‘Smokers and drinkers may gather at the void deck. Many families here have young children and teenagers. We don’t want them led astray.’

Living next to poor people, they reckon, will put them constantly on their guard in their comfortable neighbourhood.

One could be forgiven for thinking that rental HDB flats are full of layabouts, criminals and drunkards. The truth is many are elderly folk living on public assistance, as well as families with valid but low-income employment. And some are young couples trying to save up to buy a modest home of their own.

All tenant households earn not more than $1,500 a month. The HDB says it spread rental blocks across the island ‘to achieve a balanced social mix’. In other words, it tries to integrate rental flat residents with the rest of the home-owning population, so that the underclass don’t form enclaves.

There is good reason for that. Studies, such as those done by Northwestern University professor James Rosenbaum of low-income black families relocated from inner city homes in Chicago to predominantly middle-class suburbs, have found that such moves benefit the poor.

His team found that the Gautreaux Housing Relocation Project, which began in 1976, resulted in such movers being more likely to be employed. Mothers who were reluctant to get a job before because they needed to keep an eye on their kids became more open to seeking jobs when their living environment was safer. Their children were also more likely to go on to university and find full-time jobs at higher wages than those who remained in the inner city.

In Singapore, rental flat residents who live among communities of home owners stand to gain from a more balanced living environment. This is not to say that all families who live in flats they own are better off or better adjusted. Rather, living together with families across a wide spectrum of income groups will prevent both sides from acquiring a distorted sense of reality.

This point is particularly relevant to middle-income heartlanders who worry their children will grow up too coddled to understand the real world. Here’s the thing: Poverty need not be something abstract, learnt from textbooks or school excursions, if children can get some sense of what it’s like to be poor from the kids they interact with in the neighbourhood playground.

They will learn not to despise or fear the poor. They will learn, hopefully, to approach them with modesty and compassion, because they understand that hardship can strike anyone at any point in their lives.

The fortunate thing about this whole affair is that the Government looks unlikely to budge from building the rental blocks. The downturn has swelled the ranks of applicants and prompted the HDB to increase its stock of rental flats by 17 per cent to 50,000 in 2012. That said, one wonders what concessions might be made, such as the separate road entrances in the Serangoon Gardens’ case.

It is no secret that public housing in Singapore functions also as a sophisticated form of social engineering. Housing policies help integrate the races, bond families across generations, and encourage marriage to boot.

As society changes, and new forms of social divides appear, the authorities will constantly tweak the formula further to see how they can bridge the social divisions. For instance, last month Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew spoke about having separate ethnic quotas for permanent residents to prevent them from forming enclaves.

The current quotas limit the proportions of Chinese, Malay, Indians and other minority races in each block and precinct. But these quotas do not affect new immigrants, who have been buying up resale flats near one another. Hence the current review of the ethnic integration policy.

Could rental flats become the next area for social experiments? After all, HDB already has a policy of mixing different flat types in each block to encourage interactions across different income groups.

In a launch early this month, a batch of 750 upcoming flats called Punggol Crest comprised two-room, three-room and four-room units, while another 784 units called Treegrove@Woodlands offered studio apartments for the elderly together with three- and four-roomers.

Given the high number of flats being launched these days, wouldn’t it make sense for the HDB to build new rental flats within the same block as sold flats?

The average heartlander who may baulk at living next to a rental block is likely to be less resistant to the idea of living with one or two families on subsidised rental just down his corridor.

In fact, he might not be able to tell that they are subsidised tenants, and might interact with them without any preconceived notions.

Done sensibly, this merging of rental and sold flats can blur boundaries, reduce stigma and bridge differences.

Given Singapore’s rising income gap, such a policy could prove to be as socially beneficial as the ethnic integration policy.

Source: Straits Times, 16 Feb 2010

I remember my Chinese New Year visits to my grandma, who lived for some years in a one-room rental flat in Chinatown.

She chose to live on her own till she was nearly 90, holding back the day when she could not care for herself any longer.

It was her pristine little flat that I’m sure gave her that extra independence she so prized. We cherish self-determination and so do the elderly.

This diminutive woman from our pioneer days had survived tuberculosis, a world war and widowhood with such a sweet spirit.

I thought of the way she lived her later years with dignity, when some Pasir Ris and Tampines residents expressed great shock that rental flats will soon rise in their midst.

The Housing Board will begin to build blocks of one- and two-room rental flats on the green field between two Pasir Ris blocks.

In Tampines, a new 14-storey block of rental flats will go up.

There was a strong current of fear and anger in the comments of 20 residents reported by The Straits Times:

The new neighbours will look into our living rooms and bedrooms.

Foreign workers will sublet the flats. Smokers and drinkers will loiter in the void decks and lead the young astray.

Our view will be blocked and we will miss the breeze.

Property prices will dive.

The fears should not be laughed off. But we can start to confront them as more rental flats will be spread across the island.

Singapore has 42,000 rental flats now. Another 8,000 will be ready for the needy by 2012.

There has been a cry for affordable flats for the needy. There are also the divorcees and ever-rising silver population. To its credit, the HDB is delivering new rental flats in a hurry. It is housing the nation, not just young couples.

It simply has to use all its ingenuity and technology to create liveable places.

Build beautifully within budget, put in lush greenery or sky gardens, let community bonds spring up, even create an illusion of space. Also communicate with savvy and sincerity so there’s less surprise.

But when does some of that cross from smart strategy to endless pandering?

Because we’re a hyper-dense city, we’re running into what may be the world’s biggest Nimby syndrome – Not In My Backyard.

In principle, we care for the needy, but please let them live somewhere else.

What about me? What’s in my backyard? I’ve lived in HDB flats and now live in cluster housing on the East Coast.

There are no needy dwellers close by. But while a condo was being built across the road, foreign workers were housed on site. We could hear them showering – yes, they work in hot, dusty conditions – when we walked out. They congregated in our pocket park and on pavements at night.

We lived with explosive populations of mosquitoes for a couple of years as well.

I can tell you our place is very dense, and neighbours can look into each other’s homes. I have some view of sky and gorgeous greenery, but not a whole lot. In fact, private developers squeeze much into little, and I feel a greater sense of open space when I pop into HDB estates.

Where I live, there is also a temple along the boundary of our little estate. I hear chants sometimes, and navigate around the cars of temple visitors.

But on my walks, I may also pass a friendly free-range rabbit in a neighbour’s garden. I spy wild flowers, a forgotten toy in the sandpit and colourful songbirds. The best breeze and unblocked view is actually from a hillock next to a HDB estate.

Sometimes it’s a question of perception, what I choose to see. I know I have to do this a lot, because Singapore is such a high-density speck and getting more so.

Maybe we can turn the Nimby syndrome: What if it was me – or grandma?

One day, if we ever need a smaller apartment, will our new neighbours despise our presence?

Surely I don’t want to live in the future Underground Singapore?

I do not like the thought at all of the elderly retreating prematurely into nursing homes when they can age in a place with dignity and inner strength intact, possibly in a rental flat.

My dad remembers that my grandma had neighbours of steady character. They were not the voyeurs and desperados and child corrupters that we imagine will be housed in new rental flats.

I did not really see much of my grandma. But she was still the epitome of an affectionate grandparent who looked on me with love, and travelled independently on buses to see us, often bearing tiny toys that I wish I’d kept.

She died in her mid-90s after living a full life, some of it in her no-frills flat, before she had dementia and entered a nursing home.

As we celebrate family life this Chinese New Year, I hope Singapore will always have room in our hearts and estates for people like her.

Source: Sunday Times, 14 Feb 2010

For the first 10 years of my life, I lived in a one-room flat in Bedok North that could be likened to a shoebox.

My sister and I slept on mattresses squeezed between the front door and the kitchen. A flimsy wooden partition separated us from my parents’ ‘bedroom’.

There was little space to manoeuvre during the day, which meant that much of our childhood was spent outside in the corridor.

I was certainly exposed to a lot.

I remember a female neighbour – possibly deranged – who walked around topless.

Once when I was walking down the stairs, I shrank in fear when I saw an old man pouring boiling water from a kettle onto a litter of kittens. He then kicked them down the steps.

There were rumours that a neighbour on another floor smoked opium. Another woman regularly ‘borrowed’ (she never paid back) rice and money from her neighbours because her husband was a gambler.

Such memories came back last week when I read about how some residents in Tampines and Pasir Ris are fuming about the construction of rental blocks at their doorstep.

Their list of complaints was long. The value of their flats would drop, they said. The rental blocks were too tall and would block their view and eat into their privacy, they whined.

One remark jumped out at me: ‘Smokers and drinkers may gather at the void deck. Many families here have young children and teenagers. We don’t want them led astray.’

I hope it was a minority view.

Surely smokers and drinkers aren’t confined to residents of rental housing? And I’m sure children of higher-income blocks would not go astray if they have a firm hand (that is, their parents) guiding them.

It is true that rental housing tends to attract poorer folk. After all, if you had the means, would you want to live in so small a flat that watching a late night TV show would mean disturbing the sleep of your family members?

And when you’re poor, it’s inevitable that your life is difficult. And when your life is difficult, some may find refuge in certain ways – a propensity to drink, for example, or to gamble. It is a vicious circle.

Yet, growing up in a rental block, I didn’t have the feeling that there was anything to fear or to be ashamed about.

Yes, there was that half-naked neighbour and the cat-hating one, but they were the exceptions.

Many of my neighbours were more normal than dysfunctional. The majority were decent, hardworking people trying to make a living. Some might have been wayward in their youth – gangsters and such – but they were now trying to play catch-up with their lives. They took honest, albeit low-paying jobs as painters, cleaners and factory operators.

My parents were young, blue-collar immigrants from Malaysia who were saving up for the day we could move into a bigger flat. (We eventually moved to a four-room flat in 1992.)

For families like mine, rental flats are a godsend because cheap rents provide a respite for them as they work to do better in life.

So it saddens me when Singaporeans adopt a ‘not in my backyard’ mentality. It brings to mind too the complaints from landed property residents about the siting of foreign worker dormitories in their midst.

As Singapore progresses, the amount of land left to build homes has become smaller, and rental blocks have to be sited somewhere, don’t they? But have people’s hearts shrunk in the process too?

When I was a child, I would follow my parents when they visited friends living in non-rental units in neighbouring blocks. I don’t remember being given the cold shoulder because we were from a rental block.

In fact, we entertained visitors, too, in our little flat, and had nothing to feel ashamed about. We were part of the community.

Has so much changed in less than 20 years?

Source: Sunday Times, 14 Feb 2010

WHO CAN GET A RENTAL FLAT

• You have to be at least 21 years old. At least one of the occupiers has to be a Singapore citizen or permanent resident.
• Household income cannot exceed $1,500 a month.
• In the family nucleus scheme, the applicant must either be married or living with his or her parents. Applicants who are widowed or divorced and have custody of their children also fall under this category.
• In the joint singles scheme, the flat must be jointly rented by two applicants. Two singles who are at least 35 can jointly apply. This age criterion applies to both unmarried singles and divorcees. Widowed persons and orphans can apply if they are at least 21.

WHERE AND HOW MUCH

• There are a total of 42,000 rental units in Singapore.
• Tenancy is renewed every two years.
• Monthly rent ranges from $26 to $205 for one-room flats and $44 to $275 for two-room ones.
• The units range in size from 280 sq ft to 484 sq ft each.

Rental flats that are currently open for application are:

• Ang Mo Kio: (estimated waiting time is 22.5 to 25 months)
• Bukit Merah/Jurong: (estimated waiting time is 17.5 to 19 months)
• Bedok/Tampines: (estimated waiting time is 20 to 24.5 months)
• Woodlands: (estimated waiting time is 17.5 to 22.5 months)

Information from HDB InfoWEB

Showing prejudice

‘Saying that crime will increase because there are rental flats in the neighbourhood is a prejudice of those who have a vested interest in property values rather than social security.’

PROFESSOR CHUA BENG HUAT of the National University of Singapore’s Department of Sociology

Source: Sunday Times, 14 Feb 2010

While some flat owners may keep a distance from their rental flat neighbours, Madam Chin Sui Yau is the opposite.

Every Wednesday afternoon, she welcomes more than 10 residents of the rental flats at Blocks 3 and 4 in Marsiling Road to the void deck of her home in Block 5.

She chats and sings songs with the residents, who are mostly elderly and widowed, over tea.

She and her friends from a nearby church treat them to simple snacks – cakes, bananas or red bean soup.

They have been doing this since 2006.

‘They are very pathetic. Some old folk have come from estranged families and have emotional problems,’ said Madam Chin, 56, in Cantonese.

Her eyes were opened to the needs of her neighbours four years ago when she was told about a lice-infested old woman who was living in one of the rental units.

Together with some friends, she decided to bathe the old woman – whose name she still does not know – and cook for her.

‘Her nails were encrusted with faeces and she was eating mouldy bread,’ recalled Madam Chin, a widow with four children.

A few months later, the old woman died. The episode inspired her to make a difference in the lives of others in the rental blocks.

‘I went to Block 3 and started to make friends. This is what we ought to do as neighbours.’

Source: Sunday Times, 14 Feb 2010

On another plot of land. Eight storeys instead of 14. Build a condominium instead.

Some Singaporeans are dishing out such orders to the HDB about how and where rental flats ought to be built and their common refrain is, as far from my flat as possible.

While they may be customers of the Housing and Development Board (HDB), do these HDB home owners have the right to make such demands? And at whose expense should their demands be met?

Political observers say residents do not have such rights.

‘Their rights are limited to their own units and do not extend to common property,’ said former Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong, a corporate counsel.

MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC Indranee Rajah echoes that view. ‘It is HDB’s call,’ she said.

But the recent clamour in Tampines and Pasir Ris is the result of the Government getting what it is asking for, said Mr Siew. That is, to make Singaporeans ’stakeholders’ in society.

‘Naturally, they would want to have a say in matters that could potentially impact them and their immediate environment – this is not a bad development,’ he added.

Mr Hawazi Daipi, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Manpower, said ‘it is not an issue of rights, but consultation’.

‘There is a need to inform and consult, and assure residents that potential problems can be managed,’ he said.

Even then, said some, allowing the majority of Singaporeans to feel a sense of ownership cannot come at the expense of the low-income group.

‘They need a roof over their heads,’ said Jurong GRC MP Halimah Yacob.

Ms Indranee concurs. ‘It is wrong to say ‘not in my backyard’. Where are we going to house the poor who cannot afford to buy an HDB flat?’

She also questioned the safety issues raised by home owners, and said this suggests that those living in rental homes are ‘lesser-value human beings’.

‘What is the correlation between rental flat stayers and safety?’ Ms Indranee asked.

Sociologists say there is no evidence that disproportionately more crimes are committed by those living in rental flats.

The prejudices that people may have against the poor are ‘almost always exaggerated’, said Professor Chua Beng Huat of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) department of sociology.

‘Saying that crime will increase because there are rental flats in the neighbourhood is a prejudice of those who have a vested interest in property values rather than social security,’ he added.

Most fears spring from prejudices towards and stereotypes of the poor rather than actual negative encounters, said Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser of NUS’ department of sociology.

As for whether rental flats lower the prices of property in the surrounding area, most of the housing agents The Sunday Times spoke to said this was not the case.

‘Most people buy a property for access to amenities and parents. Closeness to rental flats has not been a deterrent,’ said Mr Alex Foo, an ERA housing agent.

Popular property districts include Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh, Bedok and Bukit Merah, and these areas have a large number of rental flats, agents said.

Some one-room-one-hall rental flats have such good locations that even they are being snapped up in the resale market, he said.

There are units going for $200,000, even higher than prices of some three-room flats.

Launched in 2000, the HDB’s Special Housing Assistance Programme allows existing tenants to buy over their rental flats that have been upgraded at a $15,000 discount.

Source: Sunday Times, 14 Feb 2010

It is a room with a view, but not for long, fears housewife Ho Sock Lian, 60.

Not when a block of rental flats comes up on a vacant plot of land across from her block, obscuring her view of the sky and trees.

HDB announced last month it was building blocks of rental flats in Tampines and Pasir Ris. This is part of a move to build 8,000 more rental flats in the next three years.

‘I’m very unhappy because the view will be blocked if the rental block is so high and I think this

will affect the price,’ said Madam Ho of the ninth-floor, four-room flat for which she was once offered $400,000.

Madam Ho’s views echo most of the gripes of residents spread across the Tampines block and those in blocks 475 and 476 in Pasir Ris Drive 6.

Residents in the three blocks found out recently that rental flats were being built near their homes and met Members of Parliament and HDB officials with complaints about privacy and safety.

Many were also upset that they had not been consulted or informed earlier.

However, most of the more than 30 residents who spoke to The Sunday Times said their main objection was over the loss of an unblocked view and breeze, not their fear of possible social problems their new neighbours may bring.

Said a 50-year-old self-employed Tampines resident who wanted to be known only as Mr Lee: ‘It’s unfair to say we are kicking up a fuss that the people in rental flats will cause problems. We’re not discriminating against them, we’re not very well off either. The main issue is that the new flats will block my view.’

The rental block in Tampines is slated to be 14 storeys high. HDB has not said how high the Pasir Ris rental flats will go.

Residents were also worried about congestion, saying it was already hard to find parking and new blocks would create overcrowding.

Many were concerned about losing the value of their flats too.

Residents in both Tampines and Pasir Ris said their three- and four-room flats were currently worth about $330,000 or more. They expect the value to drop below $300,000.

But a few residents admitted they are afraid their rental flat neighbours will make the area unsafe and even seedy.

Said machine operator Rosman Sairi, 44, who lives in Pasir Ris Block 476: ‘It’s been very peaceful in the nine years I’ve been living here and I don’t know what kind of people will be living in the rental block. What if they commit crimes?’

Property agents said the residents’ fears about their flats’ value taking a nosedive were unfounded.

Mr Mohamed Ismail, chief executive of estate agency PropNex, said there has been no trend of falling property prices near rental flat areas, nor are buyers more reluctant to buy them.

‘For buyers, it’s more important that the flats are near amenities and facilities. As for blocked views, any empty plot of land won’t stay vacant for long. Buyers have to be prepared for that,’ he said.

He cited the case of The Bayshore condominium in East Coast, where buyers shelled out big bucks for the sea view, only to be blocked by Costa Del Sol condominium, nine years later.

Mr Chris Koh, director of Dennis Wee Properties, said the stigma surrounding rental block residents is unfair.

‘Many are young people and young families who are just starting out. If they are aiming to buy the rental flats later on, they would be more likely to look after the flat and the neighbourhood,’ he said.

Only a handful of residents interviewed did not mind the rental flats coming up.

Said housewife Noraffnah Hanapi, 33: ‘I’m not intending to sell this place, so its value doesn’t affect me. I’m not worried about my safety either.’

But many were still riled.

Said Mr Swee Huat Beng, 31, unemployed: ‘I just moved in two months ago. If I knew that my view was going to be blocked, I wouldn’t have bought this place.’

Source: Sunday Times, 14 Feb 2010