Facilitating Release of Under-utilised Public Spaces to Serve Persons with Disabilities

33 Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Social and Family Development whether the Ministry can identify and facilitate the release of unutilised or under-utilised public spaces within the community for social service agencies to better reach unserved and under-served persons with disabilities.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: When deciding on locations for social service delivery, including services for persons with disabilities, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) considers various factors, such as the outreach to service users, availability of services in the area and accessibility of the sites. We do consider unutilised or underutilised common spaces within the community, such as Housing and Development Board (HDB) void decks, where appropriate.

MSF also regularly invites social service agencies to participate in open bidding exercises where they may submit proposals to run self-funded social programmes in available HDB or the Singapore Land Authority premises.