ST : Are rental flats that bad?

Feb 14, 2010

special report: rental flat neighbors

Are rental flats that bad?

The Sunday Times speaks to residents of such flats and their neighbours to get a clearer picture

By Irene Tham



A group of men and women playing cards in the void deck of Block 9, Teck Whye Lane, on Thursday. It is not known if they live in that rental block. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

First, you are knocked over by the smell of urine. The stench of faeces follows.

This is not a public toilet, but it has certainly been used as one.

'There is shit all over. I pity the cleaners,' said security guard B. Krishnair, who moved into Block 5, Marsiling Road last year after her family bought a three-room unit there.

She was describing the void decks of Blocks 3 and 4, which house one-room rental units, just metres away from her block.

When The Sunday Times visited the estate last Wednesday, the pungent smell hit us when we walked to the two rental blocks, although the common areas were free from mess.

The lifts reeked of stale cigarette smoke. The common corridors were quiet and flanked by rows of closed doors.

We saw a man in his 60s clasping a bottle of beer and sitting on the stairs on the 12th storey of Block 3. He appeared to be drunk.

Madam Krishnair, 41, said she had seen men urinating in the void deck of Block 3, and recounted being stared at in the chest by a 'loitering uncle'.

'He just walked up to me and looked at my breasts. It is unsafe living so close to the rental flats,' she said.

Rental blocks made the news last week when some residents in Pasir Ris and Tampines raised a stink upon finding out that the Housing Board (HDB) was going to build such blocks near their homes.

They feared for their privacy and safety if the flats were to be illegally sublet to foreigners. They were also upset about the loss of an otherwise unobstructed view, which might lower the value of their property, they said.

They were also worried about 'smokers and drinkers' in the void decks leading their children astray.

There are currently 42,000 rental units across the island. They are occupied by those with low income, mostly families, the elderly and singles. Monthly rent ranges from $26 to $205 for one-room flats and $44 to $275 for two-room units.

The Sunday Times visited six housing areas with these flats - Sembawang, Yishun, Choa Chu Kang, Marsiling, Marine Parade and Punggol - and spoke to about 50 residents from the rental flats as well as those in owner-occupied flats.

More than half of the 40 or so non-rental flat residents interviewed maintained they have no problems with rental flats nearby. The rest expressed some concern, and related negative personal brushes with their neighbours.

Madam Krishnair, for one, has already crossed swords several times with them. Her grievances: unrestrained spitting, urinating and defecating in the void decks of the rental blocks.

'I told the uncles they would be fined for spitting, but their responses were 'fine, fine lah'.'

Another resident in Block 12, Marsiling Road, located two blocks from the rental flats, said she did not dare wander around her neighbourhood after dark.

The 40-year-old clinic assistant, who declined to be named, frequently hears shouting, presumably from the two rental blocks. 'I do not know who they are and do not want to know them,' she said.

In Choa Chu Kang, a resident who wanted to be known only as Madam Ng, said she has seen men unzipping their trousers during the day at the void deck of Block 9, a rental block along Teck Whye Lane.

She has been living in the adjacent Block 11 for 25 years. 'I avoid walking past the block after dark,' said the 58-year-old housewife.

She said her son, now 21, was molested 11 years ago by a man in the lift in Block 9 after visiting a friend there.

There was nothing amiss when The Sunday Times visited the void deck of Block 9, but we spotted 10 men and women in their 40s to 60s playing cards there.

Some residents from Block 11 described them as 'the gamblers of Block 9'. But we were unable to verify where they live as they did not want to be interviewed.

Like Marsiling's rental blocks, Teck Whye Lane's Block 9 had cigarette burn marks on the floors of lifts and spray-painted graffiti at the lift lobbies. Its stairways and common corridors had litter.

Mr Ang Mong Seng, an MP for Hong Kah GRC, said that rental blocks, just like regular blocks, are cleaned once a day in the morning.

'But we also need residents' cooperation. Sometimes after the morning cleaning, the block gets dirtied in the afternoon,' he said.

On the hygiene problems at Marsiling's rental flats, Mr Hawazi Daipi, an MP for Sembawang GRC, said he has not received any complaints.

In the last 12 years, some residents had given feedback on cleanliness and safety, but the feedback did not portray the precinct 'as one that is crime-ridden and unliveable', he said.

'The precinct is far from that,' he said, adding that the police patrol the area regularly.

A different world, however, exists in Yishun, Sembawang and Marine Parade.

There, flat owners and tenants of rental flats seem to get along better. In fact, most of the residents in Yishun and Sembawang interviewed were not even aware that the new flats that popped up last year were rental units.

Mr Kamis Abdul Rahman, 55, who has been living in Block 439 in Yishun for 21 years, did not know that Blocks 436 and 438 were rental flats. The part-time library assistant said he is on good terms with his neighbours. 'If they don't bother me, I won't bother them.'

Another resident, Mr Selan, 30, who did not want to give his full name, said he bought a flat in Yishun even though he knew it was near a rental block.

The Sunday Times understands that over 20 families - mostly in their 20s and 30s - have moved into the two rental blocks in Yishun.

Over at Marine Parade, a 31-year-old executive in a charity organisation said she bought a unit in Marine Terrace Block 18 about six years ago to be near her in-laws.

This was more important than the fact that there are five rental blocks in her estate. 'I do not mind living next to them. They need a roof over their heads just like any one of us,' she said.

Most of the 10 rental flat residents interviewed said they did not feel any discrimination as they kept mainly to themselves.

Retiree Tan Teck Seng, 56, who lives in Block 3 at Marsiling Road, said he had good relationships with his rental flat neighbours. He has not had a chance to befriend those living in other blocks.

A cook who gave her name as Rose, 43, and who rents a unit in Block 9, Teck Whye Lane, said she was too tired to socialise after work.

itham@sph.com.sg

Additional reporting by Sumita Sreedharan

Would you mind if a rental block was built next to your home? Send your comments to suntimes@sph.com.sg


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No getting away?



Mrs Chia looking at the new blocks of rental flats within view from her home in Punggol Central. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

Housewife Jenny Chia moved out of her old neighbourhood to get away from the rental flats there, only to find out that she will be living next to them again.

In 2003, she moved out of her flat in Boon Keng, which was next to a rental block.

There were 'gangsters, gambling and drug problems' there, she said. While she did not see people taking drugs, she saw trails of syringes.

'It was not a healthy environment.'

She and her husband paid $410,000 for a five-room flat on the 17th storey of Block 192 in Punggol Central.

She later found out that the two blocks of flats that were recently built opposite her home would house rental units.

Shocked, she said: 'No one informed me. I have the right to know as a resident.'

The two blocks, which are behind a church and across a road junction from where she lives, look well-designed and clean.

The blocks, which appear unoccupied, are also not high enough to obstruct her view.

Mrs Chia, who has a son aged 23, and a daughter aged 10, said she is not as bothered by the appearance of the blocks as by the residents who will move in there.

She is worried that the problems of Boon Keng would be back to vex her.

'My investments have amounted to nothing,' she said. But she will not complain to the HDB.

'It is too late now. The flats have already been built.'

Irene Tham


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She treats them to snacks



Madam Chin (right) sings and chats with the mostly elderly residents of rental flats over tea. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM

While some flat owners may keep a distance from their rental flat neighbours, Madam Chin Sui Yau is the opposite.

Every Wednesday afternoon, she welcomes more than 10 residents of the rental flats at Blocks 3 and 4 in Marsiling Road to the void deck of her home in Block 5.

She chats and sings songs with the residents, who are mostly elderly and widowed, over tea.

She and her friends from a nearby church treat them to simple snacks - cakes, bananas or red bean soup.

They have been doing this since 2006.

'They are very pathetic. Some old folk have come from estranged families and have emotional problems,' said Madam Chin, 56, in Cantonese.

Her eyes were opened to the needs of her neighbours four years ago when she was told about a lice-infested old woman who was living in one of the rental units.

Together with some friends, she decided to bathe the old woman - whose name she still does not know - and cook for her.

'Her nails were encrusted with faeces and she was eating mouldy bread,' recalled Madam Chin, a widow with four children.

A few months later, the old woman died. The episode inspired her to make a difference in the lives of others in the rental blocks.

'I went to Block 3 and started to make friends. This is what we ought to do as neighbours.'

Irene Tham