Eligibility for Community Care Apartments

8 Ms Ng Ling Ling asked the Minister for National Development (a) how many Singaporeans are currently eligible for community care apartments; and (b) whether HDB will consider rolling out such apartments earlier to more townships should demand far exceed the pilot supply.

The Minister for National Development (Mr Desmond Lee): Mr Speaker, jointly developed by MND, MOH and HDB, the Community Care Apartments integrate senior-friendly housing with care services that can be scaled according to individual care needs, with the aim of better supporting our seniors to age in place. The first pilot at Bukit Batok will be launched for sale in February 2021 – which is this month – in our HDB Build-To-Order exercise.

The number of Singaporeans who may be eligible for the Community Care Apartments will depend on their age, the income levels and in the case of this pilot, we give priority to those with need for assistance with their activities of daily living. The demand for the Community Care Apartments will also depend on seniors' budget, preferences and care needs.

We have plans for the Community Care Apartments to be piloted at additional sites if the take-up rate and public response for the first pilot at Bukit Batok is good. As this is a new housing concept, we will evaluate the initial pilots before developing longer term plans.

Mr Speaker: Ms Ng Ling Ling.

Ms Ng Ling Ling (Ang Mo Kio): Thank you, Speaker, and I thank the Minister for the reply. I am very encouraged by MND, MOH and HDB for their collaboration to bring about such a meaningful pilot housing model and to expand the housing options for our seniors with a complimentary suite of care services – almost able to be customised to their needs. I have several of my residents' families who have expressed their needs for a smaller, affordable apartments like this, with care support nearer to home.

My two supplementary questions are: one, will MND also consider granting exceptions for eligibility of such flats if one of the applicants is a care-giver below 65 years old, but is looking after a senior. Case in point is a resident of mine who is the only child of an aged parent requiring such care that has been described in the pilot model.

My second question is, will MND consider granting exceptions for eligibility to such flats if one of the applicants is a person with disabilities who can benefit also from such care support, but is below 65 years old? A lot of the criteria spelt out would also be actually very suitable for people with disabilities. So, these are my two supplementary questions.

Mr Desmond Lee: Mr Speaker, this is the very first pilot. We have scoped it. We want to see what the demand is and how people respond to a care continuum option like this. But nevertheless, if appeals come in, we will consider making exceptions to the two cases that the Member had mentioned. But I think we want to make sure that we can first, evaluate the pilot, at least the first site, for the target group that this was intended for. Nevertheless, in the steady state, we will certainly look at the exceptional cases like this.

In the first case, if one is below 65 years old but a care-giver, I think we can look at the situation and exercise discretion. On the second, I have asked my team, beyond the pilot for Community Care Apartments for seniors, to look at the model for persons with disability and independent living in the community.

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng (Jalan Besar): I have actually gone to the exhibition at HDB and studied the Community Care Apartment model. I am very impressed and very excited as well. My supplementary question is related to Member Ng Ling Ling's question. I think it is such an excellent model and it should be scaled.

I am asking if the Minister would consider working with the disability organisations to pilot this model. Because the current options for residential living for persons with disability is not a continuum – you either stay at home with your own parents who are also ageing themselves, or you go to a residential home which is a very costly model. There is also merit to develop a continuum of living models so that folks can afford and benefit from different tiers of service packages. I think it just make sense for persons with disability who are younger than 65 years to be given that option; so that the principle of more self reliance and joint responsibility can be manifested in the new options.

I hope that the Minister will not wait until the pilot is over, but to try this model with persons with disability who will be able to live more independently – do a pilot of the pilot.

Mr Desmond Lee: Yes, we are already studying and actively looking at how and what options may be available for persons with disability who may want to live independently in the community.

For the Community Care Apartments, apart from the age criterion, a person with physical disability may benefit from the Care Apartment model. If a younger person with disability, and it is a physical disability, would like facilities such as these, we are certainly studying that. But, of course, there other forms of disability that we may need to look at, and the availability of community based services in a model such as this. But we are actively looking at it.

Mr Speaker: Mr Xie Yao Quan.

Mr Xie Yao Quan (Jurong): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister for his reply. I have one supplementary question. The Minister has mentioned that the Community Care Apartment is a novel housing scheme and I think the key differentiator is that this scheme integrates – it is not just about housing but it integrates care, health and social services. And the Minister, in his reply, has also emphasised the importance of evaluating this new housing scheme.

So, my question is apart from public response and market demand, what other factors and outcome measures might the Ministry take into consideration as it reviews its plans for the roll-out and evaluate the pilot scheme.

Mr Desmond Lee: I think the Member is right. In evaluating this pilot, we look beyond just the market response to a housing option like this because this is not just housing; it is housing plus social support and care options integrated together.

And therefore, in evaluating this pilot, we look at a number of things. For example, getting feedback from the seniors as well as their care-givers and family members on the layout of the Community Care Apartments, on the communal spaces that we are providing, on the programming that we are offering, on the care services, both the basic as well as the optional care services that we are providing to them.

We are also looking at whether the Community Care Apartments and the programming we are providing as well as the support that comes with it, whether it adds and supports and promotes the overall well-being of our seniors in a holistic way – both the physical well-being, emotional well-being and relational well-being.

Thirdly, for a new housing concept like this, we also want to evaluate the new models such as joint balloting. For this particular scheme, we allow seniors who are family members or friends to jointly ballot and if they ballot successfully, then both can select the apartments; and ideally on the same floor next to each other.

So, new models that seek to try to enable the kind of relationships that seniors would like to continue with, despite moving to a new home.

And ultimately, looking at it from macro-perspective as the Community Care Apartments seek to close a gap in the overall continuum of housing options for our seniors in their golden years – whether indeed it plays the part of enabling a senior to right-size to a smaller home that they can manage better in terms of housekeeping, as compared to a larger home that they owned in their earlier days when their children lived with them; as they move to a new environment, there is that social communal kind of relationships that are forged with their neighbours in the apartments; whether they are kept involved and engaged in the community and interested in the community and in active pursuits of activities.

And ultimately, it is the ability to make a more gradual support framework that escalates based on their needs; and as some seniors increasingly become frailer and have more care requirements, having priority access to a nursing home nearby.