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MP Carrie Tan’s speech during the debates on MND’s Budget
Public Rental Housing – Covid Relief
Mr Chairman Sir,
In 2018, there was a study done to examine the healthcare utilisation of the low-income community in Singapore. It found that staying in public rental housing was associated with poorer health outcomes and status. Another study found that patients living in rental housing were more likely to have heart disease commonly associated with stress, and were more likely to use anti-depressant medication, staying in hospitals longer than other income groups, and were more frequently re-admitted into hospital.
A resident of mine Mr X has a knee condition but kept delaying his surgery, in order to feed his four kids. His wife is unable to work due to a slipped disc for which she needs surgery. Mr X cycles for hours every day as a Grab delivery rider to make ends meet. I worry about what happens when his knees finally give way. Another resident Mr Y in his 50s has to go for another surgery, one surgery after another. The first, to fix a workplace injury preventing him from working for 2 years, and then a stomach surgery for ulcer, and now he is being assessed for possible cancer. He cried to me, saying he feels so defeated because he can’t even afford to buy small snacks or treats for his grandchildren. He feels that he has failed as a father and grandfather.
Although some of these residents already pay very low rent each month, thanks to the subsidies from HDB, the fear that they may lose having shelter over their heads is a real one, and a real stress point. Even $100 rent a month is a stress point for someone in Mr X and Mr Y’s circumstances, and there are many of them.
High stress leads to more ill-health, which leads to more medical bills, and more stress. It’s a vicious cycle.
I urge MND to waive the rental fees of all public housing residents for a minimum of 6 months to a year. Even though HDB does provide additional subsidies when appeal letters are sent, the stress of having to go to see an MP, and uncertainty about outcomes is still a stressful process. A blanket waiver of rent for at least 6 months will give much needed reprieve to these families who live on the brink.
Care Rental
Mr Chairman Sir, land scarcity in Singapore is a fact of life. Amidst increased public pressure and attention on Inequality, we need to provide better public rental housing in order to rehabilitate low-income families more effectively.
How can we do so without incurring larger costs?
On one hand we have large families in small rental flats, struggling with overcrowding. Single mothers and fathers are struggling to find care so they can go out to work.
And on the other hand, we have isolated elderly in HDB flats, suffering loneliness, with rising risk of elderly suicide.
We can kill two birds with one stone, by putting isolated elderly and single parent families together, to optimise resources for better social outcomes.
The cost savings from building new rental flats can be used instead as rent paid out to financially challenged and isolated elderly flat-owners, if they are willing to open up their homes to single parents and their children.
Such a program would provide a larger housing supply without incurring more building costs, improve retirement adequacy for poor seniors, reduce their social isolation, as well as provide informal care and support for the children and youth of single parents.
Chairman, in Mandarin.
我国有两个族群，各面对不同的困境。许多大家庭，同住小小的租赁组屋，面对空间不足的问题，单亲爸爸或妈妈，常常找不到看护照顾孩子，好让他们能去工作。另一方面，许多独居老人在组屋里孤独一人，卫生部数据显示，他们为此面对的自杀风险也更高。我在此提出关怀陪伴出租计划，把单亲家庭和独居老人配对，一石二鸟，全面地解决以上的问题。
在这个计划下，若这些独居老人愿意让有需要的单亲家庭住进他们家，当局可以把建新组屋的费用，转成租金，帮助老人缓解经济压力。这也开拓了新且更大的租赁组屋来源，而省下建筑费。更重要的是，老人会有人陪伴，单亲家庭的孩子也不需成为钥匙儿童。
I urge MND to consider this mutual Care Rental program, as an opt-in program and to pilot with elderly who are willing. Implementation is bound to be challenging, as personality dynamics will play a big part in the success of such a program. Hence getting a good match is critical. And it is key that the matching of elderly to families is done socially and not purely administratively.
I believe by having close collaboration amongst the ComLink agencies on the ground on such an initiative, we can see much improved social outcomes, with less costs, to optimise the care and well-being of our people.
Watch the speech here.