APPLICATION FOR HDB ACCOMMODATION (Eligibility)

Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam asked the Minister for National Development how the Housing and Development Board justifies its policy to exclude Singapore citizens, whose wives are not citizens, from applying for accommodation in the Board's apartments even where the wives have lived in Singapore with their husbands for several years.

The Minister of State for National Development (Mr Lee Yock Suan) (for the Minister for National Development): Mr Speaker, Sir, applicants for HDB flats must satisfy certain conditions to be eligible for public housing. Citizenship is one of the conditions to be fulfilled. For families consisting of only husband and wife, the minimum citizenship requirement is that one of them must be a Singapore citizen and the other a permanent resident.

A citizen who marries a foreigner, therefore, has first to apply for permanent residence for his spouse. If he is unsuccessful in his application, he cannot satisfy all the conditions stipulated in the eligibility rules for public housing. Therefore, he cannot apply for accommodation in HDB fiats.

The duration of the spouse's stay in Singapore is irrelevant to the issue of public housing eligibility. There are numerous foreign embassy staff, professional pass holders and work permit holders, who have stayed many years in Singapore but who remain foreigners and are not eligible for HDB flats.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, I am aware of this policy. My question was: how does the HDB justify this policy?

Sir, I know of one instance. A man working for the Ministry of the Environment for a number of years - he is a Government employee - is a Singapore citizen and he married another Singapore resident, but she is not a Singapore citizen, a Malaysian woman. They have been here for many, many years. The quarters he is occupying is to be demolished to make way for redevelopment. The poor man has been applying for accommodation in HDB quarters but has been turned down. What does the HDB or the Government expect people in this situation to do? A man who is a Singapore citizen and who has given years of service to the Government - his crime would appear to be that he married a Malaysian woman who has been resident in Singapore. What does the HDB and the Government propose to do in such cases? The Immigration Department refuses his wife permanent residence. What is the man going to do?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Mr Speaker, Sir, before I answer, I must say that once again we find him making innuendoes like it is a crime to marry a Malaysian. But that is not really the point. The point here, in answer to his question, is that public housing for Singaporeans is not a right. It is a privilege. It is not a right. No country has given its citizens the right to public housing. Singapore can, in fact, be very proud in that we have already housed 70% of our population, and this percentage is rising to 80%, 90% in the near future.

Nevertheless, applicants must satisfy certain conditions to qualify for public housing. For example, some families consisting entirely of citizens are not eligible simply because their household income exceeds the qualifying ceiling. Why does not the Member for Anson champion these people? Another example. The HDB maintains a blacklist of applicants who have been disqualified from applying for HDB flats for various reasons, for example, if they had misused their flats as gambling houses or for other vices. Tenants who are guilty of vandalism in lifts may, in fact, be evicted from their HDB flats. Tenants who misuse their flats as stores for bicycle thieves or subversive elements will also be disqualified.