Occupancy Requirements under the Interim Rental Housing Scheme

Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim asked the Minister for National Development (a) how does HDB engage the residents under the Interim Rental Housing Scheme (IRH) to adjust to living with other families; and (b) whether there are plans to provide for housing under the IRH based on single-family occupancy rather than the current multiple-families occupancy.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to Minister for National Development (Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman) (for the Minister for National Development): Mr Speaker, Sir, the main mode of HDB rental is based on single-family occupancy, in 1-room and 2-room public rental units. There are currently about 48,500 such rental units in operation.

The Interim Rental Housing (IRH) came about because there were a number of old HDB blocks which were vacated, pending demolition. To put them to some interim use, HDB decided to rent them out to families in financial hardship requiring urgent temporary accommodation. As IRH flats are 3-room or larger flats, co-sharing helps tenants reduce their rental cost. There are currently about 1,000 IRH rental units.

Understandably, co-sharing arrangement is not preferred. But it is manageable, provided the tenants exercise tolerance, consideration and respect. HDB plays an active role in pairing the families; it will take into account factors such as race, religion and family size. HDB will also proactively get the families to meet up, before they are paired. This should help to improve the chance of successful co-sharing.

Dr Lily Neo (Tanjong Pagar): Mr Speaker, may I ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary whether MND will do away with the Interim Rental Housing scheme in view of the various side-effects that this scheme brings, such as the social problems associated with it and the heavy rental burdens? Does the Senior Parliamentary Secretary not agree that these associated issues further jeopardise the dire predicaments that these residents were already facing? And will MND consider long-term solutions for this group of lowest income residents who have exhausted their public housing options due to previous circumstances or misfortunes, by giving them one extra last chance to purchase 3-room HDB flats, albeit with the stricter rules on subsequent resale by them?

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: Sir, I thank the Member for the question. I understand the concerns on the ground. Many Members would have met some of these families. Let me just explain the profile of the families in the Interim Rental Housing (IRH) scheme. As mentioned earlier, IRH is a temporary measure to help families who are low-income and are looking for permanent accommodation. They do not have current accommodation. It is temporary. There are different groups of families in the IRH. There are families who are currently without housing options, and we try to use the IRH to give them stability first as we try and help them look for longer term housing options. There are those who are waiting for allocation of rental flats – meaning they have already been allocated a rental flat but are waiting for allocation. There are those who are waiting for BTO flats and because the BTO flats take some time to be ready and they do not have alternative accommodation and their families cannot accommodate them, we would then allow for them to stay in IRH. There are those who are really looking for other options.

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I think what the Member is asking is: how do we manage to help them cope with the co-sharing existence that the IRH offers. At this point in time, we recognise that there are some issues. HDB has put in new measures to try and minimise their discomfort. Most importantly is for us to try to see if local community support systems can be activated to help these families. Certainly, this is a temporary measure. As mentioned earlier, the IRH is not a permanent feature. It is something that we want to put in place to help families in transition. We hope to help these families transit into long-term accommodation.

Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim (Nee Soon): Sir, I would like to thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the answer. While I understand this is a transition process, I find that it is important for us to provide basic housing for Singaporeans. I would like to appeal to the Ministry to consider how, as we ramp up the supply of rental flats, we can also provide single-occupancy for these families. As they transit, we want them to climb up the ladder again. We want them to succeed in life. We must provide adequate and sufficient housing facilities for them, so that they can live a better life as a family, and as part of the Singaporean family.

The other issue that I would like to seek clarification on is: how has HDB looked into the interests of the younger children in school? I visited a few of them and I saw young children. I am concerned as to how they are able to cope with school. It is important that their educational needs are not affected. It is important that we take care because this is our future generation.

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: Sir, as mentioned in my reply earlier, indeed, the main bulk of rental housing for Singaporeans is the 1-room and 2-room rental flats. For the longer term 1-room and 2-room rental flats, they are provided for single families. They are not shared. For the IRH flats, they are shared because the IRH units are 3- and 4-room flats, and co-sharing is to reduce the rental cost for these families.

On the issue of how we try to help the families and the children: not all the families in IRH scheme require assistance. Some of them are able to cope. They are stable, earn sufficient income and are able to manage childcare arrangements. For the small group of families who really do need help, HDB works very closely with MCYS and the Family Service Centres. These families are referred to the Family Service Centres for them to receive social services to ensure that the needs of the children are not compromised and continued to be addressed, as highlighted by the hon Member.

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Ms Ellen Lee (Sembawang): Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary: if an applicant who has been offered this interim housing has consistently requested not to share the flat because of special needs children in the family, would it result in the offer being taken away from his family permanently, in the sense that it will not be given because of the rejection to share with another family?

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: Sir, HDB tries its best to pair the families as best it can. It looks at various factors and issues. But we certainly recognise that the circumstances may be different when it comes to children with special needs. For such circumstances, I would encourage the Member to let us know so that we can look into this case individually.

Dr Lily Neo: May I ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary what he meant earlier when he said "temporary housing". I noticed that the majority of them have to stay more than one to two years and there was still no other option. May I also ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary whether it is fair to put two families who are strangers with 12 kids between them in a 2-room flat? How do we get these people to tolerate one another?

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: Sir, what I meant was that IRH is not permanent housing. IRH is temporary housing. When a family needs accommodation, we try to help them with various options. One is, if they are really low-income and do not have any other options, we try to help them with rental flats if they have already exhausted many of the housing opportunities available to them. For public rental, we try very hard to accommodate and provide after we have assessed that the family is really in need of public rental flats.

As highlighted earlier, at this point in time, we are in short supply of public rental flats. My Minister has announced earlier that we are increasing the supply of public rental flats. We have done our best and have improved the duration it takes for families waiting for public rental flats. So what I meant by IRH being temporary is that they are moving towards longer term accommodation, whether it is public rental or to another flat. We do help families to downsize to a smaller flat. Some of the families who are waiting for the BTO flats are waiting for the smaller 2-room BTO flats. HDB helps them personally to acquire these smaller HDB flats.

We acknowledge that there are some situations where families with many children are put together. We have fine-tuned the process. HDB is taking greater oversight of the situation, trying to make sure that they pair families to minimise the situation where families with a greater number of children are paired together. Moving forward, with the new guidelines in place, we hope that the situation can be improved. In the longer term, we also want to ensure that the social support services from the Family Service Centres continue to be provided to these families while they are in this temporary housing accommodation.