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Housing for the poor: The Singapore lesson

I recently read an article on the many problems confronting the government over issues on housing for the middle income group, the poor and the needy.

The real concern is that there are about 40% of the population who cannot really help themselves. Housing is the main concern plus jobs, education, safety, health and numerous other problems.

I have my take on the housing issue - the government should play a larger role in the planning and development of housing estates for the poor. The views expressed below are my personal view and I hope it is constructive enough for the government to re-examine past practices with a view to providing meaningful housing estates for the people.

The reason why the People's Action Party could run Singapore for 50 plus years and more is due, in no small part to its housing policy. The government acquired huge tracts of land under the Compulsory Acquisition Act. This enabled it to build new townships to house 30,000 to 60,000 people as the land needed for this could be 80 to 100 acres.

Townships are built upwards. That is, 15 to 25 storey flats; 2-3-4 bedrooms. These apartment blocks are built around the town center. Each town center consists of a library, supermarkets, retail shops, food centers/wet markets (wet markets are often built next to food centres so people who come to markets to buy meat/vegetables/fruits also buy their breakfasts like roti prata, tau huay, noodles, nasi lemak, chok, fishball noodles, chicken rice, etc).

In Singapore, there are 15 to 20 town centers - Woodlands Town, Punggol, Tampines, Marine Parade, Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio, Sengkang, Bishan, Yishun, Bedok etc. And all the town centres have the same basic features though the design and landscaping differs.

Low-income groups generally do not own cars. Therefore, having a bus terminus in each town centre makes it possible to link future town centres to the MRT and hence mobility for the people.

Areas surrounding the town centres are called sub-centers or precincts. Each precinct is served  by smaller eateries so people do not have to travel - especially into town centres - to eat. Schools are built in the sub-centres. Children can get to schools under 30 minutes as the school is located in the neighbourhood. Adults going to work take a bus to town centres and from there can take the MRT which can brings them around to the rest of the country.

This is the basic concept of planning done by Singapore’s Housing Development Board. Their architects, engineers, estate planners developed the whole concept and then tendered out the contract to building contractors to build the apartments, drainage works, water piping, electrical works, roads etc.

Surbana One in Singapore can help develop a township that low-income people can find meaningful. Each township must have amenities like shops, supermarkets, food centres, wet markets etc so people need not travel long distances to get their daily necessities.

It is important to incorporate all these basic features so that people do not need to crisscross the country to work, to eat, to buy household needs, to get to school and this also reduces traffic and fuel consumption.

Housing for the poor requires great political will. Few countries do what Singapore does.

They pass laws to wrest ownership of land from a few big landlords who just refuse to sell.

Meanwhile, there are lots of people living in crammed pre-war shop houses; three families sharing a small two-room unit.

Sanitation is bad, disease rampant, teen delinquency is high, all breeding grounds for many social ills.

Hong Kong solves the scarcity problem by releasing land for tender. Developers bid high, sell even higher putting it out of reach of the common folk who have to live in crammed dirty conditions.

China faces the same problem. Developers play hide-and-seek with the government. Worse, they use thugs to threaten landowners into selling land to them cheap. Then they keep on upping the prices. Their prices are comparable to Singapore private apartments in per square feet but the income level is only a fraction.

Britain: housing shortage. Australia: chronic

Most developed and developing countries face housing crises of one type or another. Only the government will build for the poor and the common folk. Putting up 10-storey tall block is a simple matter. Many developers can do it.

But planning and developing a meaningful township that is relevant to the people is a different ball game. Most people don't understand it; they think it is the same. But townships are special.

Meet up with the policy-makers in Singapore and they will take you on a tour and explain the whole concept of a township; plus they will provide advisory services on how to make it work efficiently and effectively.

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