EVICTIONS FROM HDB ACCOMMODATION (Particulars)

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam asked the Minister for National Development if he will give the number of families who have been evicted from Housing and Develop- ment Board accommodation within the last five years upon their failure to pay the monthly rents giving separately the number for each year.

The Minister for National Development (Mr Teh Cheang Wan): Mr Speaker, Sir, eight families were evicted from rental flats during the period 1980 to 1984 for rental arrears. The breakdown is as follows: 1980 - 0; 1981 - 3; 1982 - 1; 1983 - 2; 1984 - 2.

Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam (Anson): Mr Speaker, Sir, would the Minister - I do not know whether he is in a position to answer this - say for what reason these families were unable to pay the rents for which they were evicted?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: For reasons unknown to us, because jobs in Singapore are easily available. Anybody who is willing to work is able to earn an income sufficient to pay the rent. These figures, in fact, figures do not lie, speak for themselves. HDB has 130,000 rental flats and, for five years, only eight families were in rental arrears and were unable to pay and had to be evicted by HDB. Eight families in five years - Mr Speaker, Sir, I think, the Member for Anson is always imagining that Singapore has a lot of poor people. Just a few days ago he mentioned that three years ago he told the foreign reporters that there were thousands of Singaporeans starving.

Mr Jeyaretnam: On a point of order. The Minister is grossly distorting what I said. We have distortions from Ministers ad nauseam in this House. What I said was "some people". I did not say "thousands of people". Will you please produce the paper?

Some hon. Members: Yes.

Mr Jeyaretnam: I didn't say "thousands of people". Produce the paper.

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Yes. Mr Speaker, Sir, in fact, I know some people in Singapore are starving. But why are they starving? They are on diet! I know of many people who eat only two meals a day. But it is not because they are so poor that they cannot afford three meals. They skip breakfast because they are afraid of putting on weight.

Mr Jeyaretnam: I am surprised that the Minister says the HDB does not know the reason why these families could not pay their rents. Is the Minister saying that no investigation was made by the HDB before these people were thrown out?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: In every case, an investigation was made and assistance was offered, but the families for reasons known to themselves did not want to pay their rent.

Mr Jeyaretnam: May I know from the Minister what assistance was offered to these families?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: The first was to offer them jobs. They usually said that they could not pay the rent because they were unemployed. Then HDB would try to see how it could help them to obtain employment. And the families sometimes said that they were sick, or for various other reasons which HDB investigators thought that if they deserved assistance from the Social Welfare Department, HDB would refer the case to Social Welfare Department. If the families said they were temporarily out of job and were not able to pay the rent, HDB would arrange for them to pay their arrears by instalments and, if they do pay their arrears by instalments, HDB does not evict them,

In the whole of Singapore, with a population of 21/2 million, HDB had evicted eight families in five years, ie, 1.6 families per year. And the Member for Anson thinks that this is a very serious crime, thinking that an enormous number of people have been evicted. I think Singapore is doing very well since only eight families were unable to pay their rents and had to be evicted. It is a very small number.

Dr Augustine H.H. Tan (Whampoa): Mr Speaker, Sir, would the Hon. Minister inform this House whether, among the eight families who were thrown out of HDB flats, there were families already on social welfare? And among these families, were there able-bodied people, able to work, but not working, or refusing to work?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: On the first point about people on social welfare assistance, the answer is no. I think they received sufficient assistance from the HDB. Usually, if they run into temporary difficulties, HDB will make arrangements to help them. It is the other way. As I mentioned, anybody who is willing to work and is willing to accept any job is able to earn an income to enable him to pay rent.

Dr Augustine Tan: Mr Speaker, Sir, is it true that, in the event any family is in rental arrears, then if an MP were to write in to ask for payment by small instalments, would the HDB allow such payment to be made?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Mr Speaker, Sir, the answer is yes. In fact, in many cases HDB allows the rental arrears to be paid by instalments.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, would the Minister produce, in each of these eight cases, the offer of jobs made by the HDB to them?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: HDB tries to assist them, but I do not think that HDB has the responsibility of offering jobs to the people who are in rental arrears.

Mr Jeyaretnam: I thought you said you offered them jobs.

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: This is not the HDB's responsibility. But HDB officers, during the investigations, out of their own effort, try to help these people. I have mentioned that usually, during investigations, if the people were to say that they are unemployed, HDB officers would try to see if they could help by offering them jobs. But it is not the HDB's responsibility to offer jobs to anyone who is in rental arrears.

Mr Jeyaretnam: You said you offered them jobs.

Encik Yatiman Yusof (Kampong Kembangan): Sir, I would like to ask the Minister how many months in arrears of rent are these people allowed to accumulate before they are evicted?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Mr Speaker, Sir, I think it is more than three months, in some cases it is more than six months.

Encik Yatiman Yusof: May I ask the Minister that in my constituency there is a case of a person who has accumulated arrears of rent by as much as $1,500 for a 3-room rental flat, and yet he is still staying in the HDB flat. Does that not exceed three months' rental?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: I am afraid that has well exceeded a year's rental. As I have said, HDB usually does all sorts of things to try and help these people. To evict a person is not something that HDB would like to do. It is a last resort.