A DORMITORY for foreign workers may be half a kilometre away, but its problems could still end up on the doorsteps of its neigbours.

In residential areas like Jalan Kayu and Jurong, where foreign worker dorms have sprung up, littering, loitering and rowdy behaviour are some of the problems residents have had to put up with.

And as more foreigners arrive to work in industries such as construction, where they will live will become a contentious issue.

Last week, residents in Serangoon Gardens banded together to petition against housing workers in a former school in the neighbourhood.

Though complaints have subsided in Jalan Kayu, where two dorms housing 6,000 workers were built three years ago, some residents say that the problems never really go away.

Neighbourhood chairman Terry Fong remembers how there was a barrage of complaints from residents when the dorms went up.

Mostly, they were about Indian and Bangladeshi workers dirtying the neighbourhood by littering and spitting. But there were also concerns about safety as workers had a tendency to loiter in big groups and become drunk and rowdy.

Knowing that something had to be done, the committee roped in several foreign workers late last year to participate in regular patrols around the neighbourhood with the police and local residents.

They were mentors to their peers, helping them understand the laws and social norms of where they lived, said Mr Fong.

There are fewer complaints now, and it is partly a result of getting workers directly involved in security, he felt.

'The majority say it is good that we have this programme, but it is something we have to keep working at,' he said.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.