BUDGET 2018
meant that everyone slept in the same place they cooked, ate, studied, played and watched TV. It also meant that recurrent arguments had to be painfully swallowed as part of the price to pay for shelter.
While living in the shelter, Sarah was informed that her application had finally been accepted, but that she had to wait 4 to 6 months before moving into her flat. It took less than a month for the family to find their new life intolerable.
She was rejected for the third time and was advised to rent a room on the open market. As Sarah was still struggling with her finances, this was not an option. She applied to the public rental housing scheme for the fourth time. Eventually, Sarah was forced to leave her parents’ home, after reaching a breaking point in one of her many heated arguments with her relative. Her FSC social worker then referred her to a shelter nearby where she resided with her children and her new co-tenants – a family of five.
HOMELESSNESS IN SINGAPORE According to the European Typology on Homelessness and Housing Exclusion or ETHOS, which was developed by the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) and the European Observatory on Homelessness, a home has three domains: the physical, social and legal. The physical domain refers to an individual’s ability to have ample space and exclusive ownership of it; the social domain refers to an individual’s ability to have privacy, and enjoy relationships with others; while the legal domain refers to one’s legal right to occupy the space.
Based on this framework, families living in transitional housing such as shelters and interim rental flats can be considered to be homeless, as they suffer from a lack of space and privacy for them to carry out their daily activities. While this is not the common When the 30-month debarment period understanding of homelessness in ended, Sarah applied for a public rental flat Sarah’s children could no longer play Singapore, it is important to acknowledge only to face rejection as she was told that or make noise at home as children do, such a definition in trying to understand she had enough savings in her CPF account without disturbing their co-tenants. As her the vulnerable state of families living in to apply for a Build-To-Order (BTO) flat. co-tenants had moved in first, they assumed these temporary arrangements. However, her income of $1,200, as well a greater sense of ownership in the house, as her part-time employment status at treating it “as if it were theirs”. Sarah had to Through Sarah’s story, we see that the time, made her have doubts about cook before her co-tenants returned home homelessness is more than just a lack of qualifying for the HDB loan. Nonetheless, from work or school, and then her family accommodation, and that it takes grit and Sarah decided to apply anyway, seeing that either retreated into their room or went out sheer determination for families such as her application for a public rental flat had to spend the night at her friend’s place hers to survive. On top of these spatial already been rejected. nearby. Soon, her eldest son started having and environmental disadvantages, the “meltdowns”, like he did right after her complexity of the procedures involved in While waiting for the results of her HDB divorce and Sarah started falling sick easily, securing a proper home truly demands the Loan Eligibility (HLE) application, Sarah to the point that she could not go to work. support of social workers as well as other continued to stay at her parents’ home. She remembers this as the most physically organisations that provide avenues for On weekdays, Sarah worked part-time at a and emotionally tiring period of her life. empowerment for the homeless. hospital while on weekends, she volunteered with a charity organisation. Six months Desperate but undefeated, Sarah sought In the words of American novelist Toni after her application, Sarah received a letter help from her FSC and the charity Morrison, “if you are free, you need to free of rejection. Wasting no time, she applied, organisation that she was volunteering somebody else. If you have power, then once again, for a public rental flat. Once with. The two organisations worked your job is to empower somebody else”. more, her application was rejected. After together in writing a letter of appeal to It is time that the rest of us consider what realising that she needed a more convincing HDB, requesting for her waiting period to we can do to ensure that the voices and voice, she shared her plight with her social be shortened, and that she get a place close aspirations of the homeless do not get worker from the Family Service Centre to her parents’ home drowned out by the sound of a nation’s (FSC) and her constituency’s Member of paper chase. Parliament (MP) and got them to write an After a month in the shelter, Sarah received appeal letter to HDB. a call from HDB. Finally, she had a home.
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