It comes second to financial issues in survey of residents in rental HDB flats
Jalan Kukoh resident Sanisah Saadon, 34, and her husband Johari Ahmad, 38, are now receiving financial aid from the Central Singapore CDC. They have three sons: (from left) Danial Danish Haziq, seven; Danny Danish Haiqal, two; and Darwin Danish Hairi, three months. -- ST PHOTO: BRYAN VAN DER BEEK
WHILE financial issues were the top concern of residents in Jalan Kukoh precinct, living conditions, surprisingly, came in a close second, even beating issues such as elder care and jobs.
Litter, urine in the corridors and lifts, and smelly rubbish chutes were some of the bugbears that came up in a survey conducted by the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Citizens' Consultative Committee (CCC), mainly among residents of one-room and two-room rental flats.
Of the 725 respondents interviewed from end-October to end-November last year, 28 per cent indicated that they needed help with living conditions outside and in their flats, and 30 per cent said they needed financial assistance for daily necessities, public utilities and rental, among other things.
CCC chairman David Ong said the survey was a way to uncover the varying needs of residents.
Besides living conditions and financial aid, residents were also asked if they needed help with jobs, children, or elder care.
For example, under elder care, the elderly were asked if they needed wheelchairs or walking sticks, or even if they needed meals delivered.
The Jalan Kukoh precinct was selected because of its high number of rental flats - of the 12 blocks surveyed, nine are rental blocks made up of one- and two-room flats.
Mr Ong said it was 'more vital to go into that precinct because of the lower-income groups there'.
Residents were glad that an extra effort was being made to reach out to them.
Madam Sanisah Saadon, 34, who had just had her third child when the CCC came around to carry out the survey, said she was really at her wits' end as both she and her husband had no income and owed money to the Housing Board for their rental flat.
'They came to me, asked me what I needed, gave me contact numbers of the CDC. If not, I wouldn't know what to do,' said Madam Sanisah, who is now getting $350 per month for three months from the Central Singapore Community Development Council.
But finding out what residents need is only half the job done. Mr Ong said the data from the survey has been fed into a database so that the relevant authorities such as the town council, HDB and the police can have a history of the problems in the area, which they can use to help resolve issues more quickly.
'It is a continual process,' he said. 'We have seven precincts, of which only one precinct is rental-block-free. We need to keep on moving to the next high concentration of rental blocks.'
Source: Straits Times, 20 Jan 2010.
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