The Homeless - Part 1

When I was a kid, I had always wanted a 'Play House' sold at Toys 'R' Us. It was a hard plastic house that had a size of 3 by 3 metres in length, and a metre in height. What had made it attractive in the eyes of the kids was its bright coloured features and various designs of houses. Die-hard I wanted it badly, despite knowing that it could get stuffy after awhile in it. And my Dearest Mom would give her usual reply of 'Okay, shall get it for you someday' whenever I asked for it. It was only the matter of time before I would figure out that it was just another false hope of hers; like how she used to 'promise' that she would register me for weekly tae-kwon-do lessons back then.

When I matured into a teenager a decade ago, I had moved into my recent house at Bedok. I pondered 'When will I ever have my own room?' since I have been sharing a room with my younger siblings all these while.

Now, all grown up, I am excited that the lingering thought of having my own room would soon be a reality after my mom told me that she is planning of getting a resale 4 room flat. I know this time it is not going to be another false hope of hers, as both me and my mom have planned to share our CPF funds to get the flat. However, vis-a-vis to the recent substantive issue- the increasing number of the Homeless, it has made me to think twice about getting my own room...

The Homeless

As you know, statistics have shown that there's a growth in the homeless population. These homeless have become the 'Permanent Residents' of places like streets and beaches. Unlike the kind of PR that certain eligible foreigners could apply for, if they wish to work and live here, the homeless are not allowed to be the 'PR' of the streets or places as such.

There are two kinds of homeless that we could look at. One is the homeless family -where the whole of the family nucleus had been kicked out from their homes due to unaffordable payments of Housing Development Board (HDB) or bank loans. The other type of homeless is made up of aged parents, where their ungrateful children insisted that Old Folk's Home is the best resort for them. Typical reason, lack-of-time to look after the well-being of their parents due to busy schedule at work.

Among these two, my heart goes a lot to the latter type of homeless people. The homeless 'family nucleus' existed because of their greed: which is totally avoidable if the bread winner of the family is wise in his expenditure and payment of loans. Conversely, the homeless 'aged parents' have no alternative but to be homeless if they want to escape from being imprisoned in the Old Folk's Home. Personally, I would rather be homeless than to be send to such Homes. For simple logic; I'm old and my life span is short. I would rather live in uncertainties of my remaining days of life- just to able to see happiness around me even though it isn't mine, than to be in the same place everyday till my last breath- where sorrows of other souls grieve in silence.

Latter part of the heart-throbbing issue, the HDB was fast enough to react with the raising concern of these homeless. I guess they were going like 'Ouhk-oh' .. after lots of questions probably hanging in the air which goes something like: Okay, I wasn't given second chance in my payment of house thus I need to pack my stuff to make my leave and it is an offence to live in the public. So where on earth I need to go if I do not have any relatives or my relatives aren't kind enough to spare some space in their house?

So, our gracious HDB are actually making some apartments for these homeless- a temporary stay of three months before they finally got a more stable job which could allow them to move out from their support. I was imagining their temporary home would look somewhat like a hostel as they would be sharing the apartment with rest of the other homeless.

But then again, will this solution is going to decline the raising number of the homeless? Or would take HDB by storm if their implementation could actually end up in an ironic twist? While me and my good friend, Mr M, were pondering and sharing solutions to it days ago, I guess the one of the way could decline the homeless population is by tackling the issue in the root of the problem.

What's the "Really Root of the Problem?" Elaboration would be explain in my next blog. It is getting late guys.

To Be Continued . .