Coordination between Government Agencies to Verify and Review Fire Risk of Hoarding Cases in HDB Flats

4 Ms Ng Ling Ling asked the Minister for National Development with regard to feedback received by HDB from residents on suspected excessive hoarding in a neighbour’s flat (a) what is the protocol for HDB officers to verify and ascertain if the excessive hoarding is true; (b) what is the existing coordination protocol between HDB and SCDF under the inter-agency Hoarding Management Core Group to mitigate fire risks associated with reported excessive hoarding in HDB flats; and (c) whether the Ministry will review and enhance both protocols.

The Senior Minister of State for National Development (Ms Sim Ann) (for the Minister for National Development): Sir, generally, the Government does not interfere in how residents upkeep their homes, unless their actions pose health, safety or other risks to themselves or their neighbours. At the same time, we recognise that residents have legitimate expectations that their living environment is clean, safe and orderly. The need to balance these two considerations guide our whole-of-Government approach towards the management of in-unit hoarding.

That is why on receiving public feedback about in-unit hoarding, Housing and Development Board (HDB) officers visiting the unit concerned need to seek the hoarder and/or his family’s consent to inspect the premises. This often entails repeat engagements, as well as coordination with other frontline agencies who might already be working with the household on other issues, and with whom the hoarder and family have already built up a certain level of trust. All these take time.

Where there is significant fire risk, HDB coordinates with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) to use its regulatory powers where needed. For example, SCDF may order the owner to cease hoarding flammable items, such as fuel.

Despite these efforts, there are cases where hoarders refuse to grant access for inspections or cooperate in decluttering efforts. The hoarding may also recur, as habits do not change so quickly.

To address such situations, the Government recently amended the Community Disputes Resolution Act (CDRA) to allow the Director-General of the pilot Community Relations Unit (CRU) to apply to the Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals (CDRT) to declutter the hoarder's unit. This is a measure of last resort, premised on public interest, after existing regulatory levers from frontline agencies have been exhausted and the hoarder has failed to comply with a previous CDRT order to declutter. The CRU aims to begin operations from the second quarter of 2025.

The underlying motivations and support networks of hoarders and their families vary from case to case. There is no one-size-fits-all solution and enforcement is only one of several measures. A whole-of-society approach is needed to address hoarding in a more holistic and sustainable manner. This is why the public, people and private sector came together over the past year or so, to form an Alliance for Action to manage hoarding, termed the New Environment Action Team (NEAT). Through this platform, members can learn from and tap each other's strengths so that collectively, as an ecosystem, we identify cases early and provide more well-rounded support to hoarders and relief to their neighbours in a sustainable manner.

Mr Speaker: Ms Ng.

Ms Ng Ling Ling (Ang Mo Kio): Speaker, I thank the Senior Minister of State for the very comprehensive reply. I think fellow Parliamentarians would have read about a very big Hougang fire that happened earlier this year on 9 January 2025 in my Jalan Kayu constituency. In fact, the fire was so fierce that SCDF had to evacuate seven floors of my residents while they were putting out the fire. The fire, unfortunately, took the lives of three of my residents, the youngest, being an 18-year-old girl.

My first supplementary question is that I am deeply saddened by the tragedy, and so, my grassroots leaders, volunteers and I want to step up to see what we can do as a community to work closer with Government agencies, like HDB and SCDF, to respond to and also to assist when we know of residents who may have suspected hoarding issues in their flats. In this case, several neighbours said that they had given feedback to HDB about this unit. So, my question is, what would the Senior Minister of State advise us to do while waiting for the CRU, which I understand will be piloted first at Tampines, to be rolled out? So, we want to take actions as a community.

My second supplementary question is that I read from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) website that hoarding challenges can sometimes be due to mental health conditions, such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or even psychosis where a person feels compelled to behave in a certain way. So, my question is, in this regard, how are HDB officers trained to identify potential mental illnesses in checking on hoarding complaints and what is the referral protocol to mental health teams, like Community Outreach Team (CREST), in the community?

Ms Sim Ann: My colleagues and I are saddened by the fire that Ms Ng Ling Ling has mentioned and the fatalities that it has caused. I understand that investigations into the cause of the fire have not yet officially concluded, so while I am not able to comment on the specifics of this case, I understand the gist of what Ms Ng Ling Ling is asking about.

I would like to say that there is a very positive role for grassroots and community volunteers to play in partnering the agencies in addressing suspected hoarding cases. First of all, in quite a number of the cases that we see, the hoarding behaviour may not be reported by either the hoarder or the family members themselves. Sometimes, they can be quite elusive, and if neighbours observe something and report it, I think this helps to get the information to the agencies.

I have also mentioned that with the amendments to the CDRA, we now would have an additional pathway to compel decluttering where other regulatory levers are not successful and where other efforts to persuade have failed.

With the grassroots, we feel that not only are they able to provide some timely information to the agencies, but I think in terms of helping to create a more holistic approach in addressing the underlying needs of the hoarder and the family, they can be very helpful. We see, sometimes, that the underlying cause could be related to social isolation. It could be related to loneliness. It could also be because the person actually does not have any other daily routine. And the kind of befriending and activities that volunteers may be able to come in to help give structure would be helpful. And I think this is one area that NEAT looks forward to working together with grassroots on, especially those who have had some positive experience in helping hoarders, so that we can develop and strengthen future processes in dealing with such cases.

On mental health, we have a number of organisations with experience in this area, who are also part of NEAT. This includes the Agency for Integrated Care, which oversees CREST. It includes IMH as well as the Ministry of Social and Family Development, and also some of our social service agencies who also have capacities in dealing with mental health-related cases. We look forward to these organisations helping to put together their best practices and also reaching out to grassroots volunteers like those in Ms Ng Ling Ling's constituency.

In terms of the training, our HDB officers as well as other frontline agencies' officers are given basic training to identify potential mental health cases and to understand how to refer them to specialised assistance as well.

Mr Speaker: Mr Dennis Tan.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Hougang): Mr Speaker, I thank the Senior Minister of State for her comprehensive answers. I have two supplementary questions.

As the Senior Minister of State alluded, it may take time to engage a persistent hoarder. How will HDB give assurances to residents who are concerned about their own safety arising from the acts of a neighbour who is a persistent hoarder?

Second, the CRU is being set up and it will go through a pilot phase in Tampines. Can I ask that the Ministry, and the Government, to try to expedite the application of the CRU to the rest of Singapore to deal with cases like hoarding and also other noise nuisance cases?

Ms Sim Ann: In hoarding cases where residents are worried about potential fire safety and when these cases are alerted to HDB, we will work together with our partner agencies, in this case, SCDF, to make an assessment to see whether, for instance, a Fire Hazard Abatement Notice can be issued. This is one of the regulatory levers that are already at the disposal of the agencies collectively and this is something that can be activated in cases that are warranted. We do not have to wait for the CRU to be set up for this.

And I also thank Mr Dennis Tan for his support of the CRU and indeed, once it is in operation, we will seek to be as quick as possible in gaining experience from its operation and to scale up, because that is the eventual intention.