Requests by Homeless and Rough Sleepers for Temporary Accommodation or Shelters in 2021 and Options Available

9 Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) what is the number of requests received by the Ministry from the homeless and rough sleepers for temporary accommodation/shelters in 2021; (b) what is (i) their successful placement rates and (ii) the number of successful applicants placed on the waiting list and their estimated waiting time; and (c) what is the Ministry’s assessment, plans and alternative options for them to meet their existing and future housing needs.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Eric Chua) (for the Minister for Home Affairs): Sir, social service agencies and community partners operate Safe Sound Sleeping Places (S3Ps) as well as MSF-funded Transitional Shelters (TSes). These facilities cater to rough sleeping individuals and families with different needs and preferences.

S3Ps are set up within community premises and are operated by members of the Partners Engaging and Empowering Rough Sleepers (PEERS) Network. The PEERS Network is a collaboration amongst community partners, social service agencies and public agencies, that join hands to support rough sleepers.

S3Ps provide rough sleepers a safe environment to rest for the night. There are currently 26 S3Ps across Singapore. In 2021, there were around 270 unique applicants to S3Ps, with 61% of them successfully admitted. 39% of them were not admitted because they had mental health, behavioural or addiction issues, or had care needs that require close supervision. MSF would refer these clients to appropriate facilities and services for further support.

There is no waitlist for S3Ps presently as there are sufficient spaces to support those in need of urgent shelter. S3Ps' schedule admissions based on S3Ps and clients’ availabilities. Most applicants are admitted within three working days. If there are no vacancies at any particular S3P at a one point of time, rough sleepers will be referred to alternative shelters or accommodation options.

On the other hand, there are currently six TSes funded by MSF, with a total capacity of around 500 spaces for individuals and around 180 spaces for families. TSes provide temporary shelter and onsite social work intervention, where social workers work with residents on their issues and support them in securing long-term stable housing.

There were around 860 unique applicants to TSes in 2021, either referred by MSF or other social service agencies: 62% were successfully admitted last year; 38% were not admitted for various reasons. Some had care needs that TSes were unable to support, such as frail seniors who required assistance with activities of daily living. Applicants assessed as unsuitable for TS are referred to other options, for example, to Senior Group Homes which provide assisted living in public rental flats for frail seniors. Others rejected the TS option as they did not want to co-share the space with others, follow shelter rules, or to work with the social worker. Others prefer yet to remain at familiar locations.

The time taken to admit the successful applicants depends on factors such as whether the social worker is able to contact the applicants and obtain necessary information to assess their applications. Once they are assessed to be eligible for TS, they will be offered a space. And for TS for individuals, there is currently no waiting list as there are sufficient spaces. Successful applicants can be admitted immediately after the TS offers them a space. In 2021, almost 80% of successful applicants to TS for individuals were admitted within a week.

For TS for families, there is currently no waiting list as of 12 February this year. MSF has recently set up a new TS in end-January this year, increasing the spaces for families from 130 to 180 to address demand for shelter from homeless families. If there are families that require urgent placement such as those with children and the elderly, MSF will work with the TS operators to prioritise their admissions.

For applicants who are not admitted to TS, they can stay at the S3Ps, where social service agencies and the PEERS Network will continue to engage them. For those who are not ready to seek shelter, befrienders from the PEERS Network continue to actively reach out to befriend and engage them to understand their unique circumstances and build trust with them. When they are willing to receive assistance, befrienders help to connect them to relevant social service and Government agencies for support.

MSF and our PEERS Network partners strive to provide timely and targeted support to rough sleepers and homeless persons, including inviting more partners to join the PEERS Network and encouraging everyone to contribute to efforts to support rough sleepers and homeless persons. If members of the public encounter any homeless individuals, they can call the ComCare hotline at 1800 222 0000, or refer them to the nearest Social Service Office or Family Service Centre for assistance.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Edward Chia.

Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui (Holland-Bukit Timah): Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I would like to ask the Parliamentary Secretary a follow-up question. Given the delays in HDB rental flat allocations due to manpower crunch in the construction industry, has MSF observed a rise in temporary shelter requests and has coordinated upstream with HDB rental on providing shelter to those awaiting allocation?

Mr Eric Chua: Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the Member for his supplementary question. I think in the past one and a half to two years since I have joined MSF, I have been privileged to be on several night walks with our community partners and social service agencies on the ground. What happens on each of these night walks is that there would be MSF officers that would be tagging along the community partners, groups like those coming from the Homeless Hearts of Singapore, from the Catholic Welfare Services and together with the MSF officers is also a team of multi-agency officers as well. And one of the agencies that support the MSF officers on the ground would also be the HDB officers.

What these means is that actually, when we encounter a rough sleeper, be it someone who is known or new to us, we will be able to very quickly pull out whatever information we may already know about this person and then make quick arrangements for this particular individual rough sleeper that we are talking about.

What I am trying to illustrate is the fact that actually, the coordination between HDB, as well as MSF, community partners and many other agencies is right there, right from the start as we first come into contact with any rough sleeper. And that assistance that is provided by HDB, as well as by the Government agencies and community partners, goes through and we journey with them, with each of the rough sleeper along the way.

What probably could be better communicated to members of the public is also the fact that for rough sleepers, each of their situation is quite unique. In my past life as a lifesaver, when I was going through training, I was always told that no two emergency incidents are the same. I think the same logic applies for rough sleepers, no two rough sleepers face the same difficulties back at home or back at their household or their families. And sometimes, when we construe rough sleeping or homelessness as purely a single dimensional problem of housing, I think that is where we need the public mindset to slightly shift. I think we can do a little bit more in this respect.

But I assure the Member that HDB, as well as MSF and many other agencies and community partners work hand in glove to make sure that each of our rough sleepers get the customised and understanding assistance that they need.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Seah Kian Peng.

Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade): Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, just a short supplementary question for the Parliamentary Secretary. I wonder whether the Parliamentary Secretary could share with us if the Ministry knows the exact number of rough sleepers who actually do have housing options but for various reasons, prefer to still sleep around these areas as is.

I ask this because I am sure in all our respective wards, we sometimes get feedback from concerned residents, and rightly so – why do they see this person at this place for so many days? But we actually know them too. They do have housing options but they prefer to rough it out and stay there. If we all know this, I think this will allow the public to know that sometimes what they see is not a case of them having no options. So, if the Parliamentary Secretary could share with us.

Mr Eric Chua: Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the Member, Mr Seah, for his question. Again, drawing experience from the several night walks that I have been on in the past year and a half, I have noticed exactly the same phenomenon that the Member has raised. The fact that, sometimes alongside rough sleepers, there would be their friends who actually have homes to go back to. There would also be rough sleepers who actually have families to go back to, but for various reasons – it could be disputes, it could be the fact that they just want to be with their friends on the streets, it could well be that their families are living in a place that is further away and where they are rough sleeping is: number one, to be closer to their friends; and number two, perhaps closer to where they work at that particular point in time.

So, for these various reasons, I think that Member has rightly pointed out that there is a small group of them that have homes to go back to, but choose not to do so for various reasons, some of which that I have stated.

MSF does not actively track the macro number of such profiles that are out there in the community and I would want to stress that the macro numbers in this case might not be so useful in our work in extending assistance to each of them. Because the assistance that each of these rough sleepers require is bespoke. It needs to be customised to the rough sleeper's specific instance.

So, in this case, I would very much prefer to focus on the individual rough sleeper as opposed to be investing a lot of resources to find out the macro numbers.

But one macro number that we are quite interested to know is also a count of the rough sleeping population that we have in Singapore. I think the academia – NUS – has done a study in the past. They have a study that has recently been conducted, I think, end of last year. MSF is also exploring working with members of academia to assess the rough sleepers situation and takes stock en masse how the situation has been.

But anecdotally, as well as in terms of actual numbers that we have observed, both in terms of admission to S3Ps or TSes, we get the sense that in the course of the pandemic in the past two years, what has happened is that more of rough sleepers that were previously not amenable to working with Government agencies, social workers, community partners, to really try to come to some form of stable long-term housing, more of them have come on board to say that, "Look, I am willing to work with you to achieve stable long-term housing".

So, our assessment is that in the past two years, because of the pandemic, we have actually managed to match more rough sleepers to either short-term or longer-term housing.