Home Ownership Schemes for Malay/Muslim Community
Ministry of National DevelopmentSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin’s inquiry into how Project DIAN@M3 complements HDB’s Home Ownership Support Team to assist Malay/Muslim families and how the initiative is resourced. Minister of State for National Development Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim explained that the project provides integrated support for education, employment, and health to help families move from rental flats to home ownership. It coordinates with national programs like ComLink and KidSTART to enhance inter-generational mobility and utilizes MENDAKI SENSE to improve employment outcomes and stable household incomes. Additionally, social support initiatives like Project ARIF are used to foster positive family environments that support the goal of asset building. Resourced by the M3 Engagement Coordination Office, the project employs trained volunteers for last-mile outreach to ensure vulnerable families can successfully attain their own homes.
Transcript
15 Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin asked the Minister for National Development with regard to Project DIAN@M3 which helps Malay families in public rental flats to achieve home ownership, how will these efforts (i) complement existing efforts by HDB’s Home Ownership Support Team (HST) to avoid duplication and (ii) be resourced to achieve intended outcomes of integrating assets towards enhancing home ownership of the Malay/Muslim community.
The Minister of State for National Development (Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim) (for the Minister for National Development): Mr Speaker, uplifting lower-income and vulnerable families, including supporting families staying in rental flats to attain and regain home ownership, is a whole-of-society effort.
On the Government’s part, we have a suite of housing grants and priority schemes to ensure that public housing continues to be affordable and accessible to all Singaporeans. We have also enhanced our measures to provide additional support to families staying in rental flats in recent years. In addition to generous housing grants, families in public rental can receive one-to-one guidance from the Housing and Development Board's (HDB’s) Home Ownership Support Team (HST) as they work towards buying a flat.
Within the Malay/Muslim community, the M3 network has various programmes that complement the Government’s initiatives in supporting lower-income and vulnerable families. Project DIAN@M³ aims to provide more effective and integrated support for Malay/Muslim families staying in rental flats by connecting them to the wide range of national and community programmes for education, employment, social support and health.
Project DIAN@M³, which focuses on Malay/Muslim families, will focus on the following aspects.
First, we want to improve inter-generational mobility by giving more attention to families with children staying in rental flats. Project DIAN@M³ will see the coordination of M³ outreach efforts with other Government programmes such as the Ministry of Social and Family Development's Community Link or ComLink, Early Childhood Development Agency’s KidSTART and Ministry of Education’s UPLIFT, including facilitating access to pre-school education and ensuring the children can attend school regularly.
Second, we want to help families staying in rental flats improve their employment outcomes and earn a stable income, so that they can work towards buying an HDB flat. This includes helping these families utilise their SkillsFuture credits and linking them up with career counselling programmes under MENDAKI SENSE. We also want to encourage more women to join and remain in the workforce. For Malay women who wish to continue working after marriage or childbirth, the Back-to-Work Women programme by MENDAKI SENSE connects them to potential employers and prepares them to take on new jobs.
Third, we will ensure that families have access to social support that can help them to grow a positive family environment. This is done through programmes such as Bersamamu and Project ARIF, which support newly wed couples for family life, maternal wellness and child development.
In terms of resourcing, Project DIAN@M³ will be led by the M³ Engagement Coordination Office (ECO) and tap on its existing resources. For example, ECO will equip volunteers reaching out to families staying in rental flats with the knowledge and skills to perform last-mile outreach. We welcome more who wish to be part of Project DIAN@M³, and partner us on this important effort. Ultimately, we hope the concerted support will enable the vulnerable families to achieve home ownership.