When moving house sometimes means supporting those who need help to resettle

SINGAPORE – Every evening at the void decks of blocks 91, 92 and 93 Henderson Road, small groups of residents gather informally – on stools, benches, personal mobility scooters and wheelchairs – to enjoy one another’s company.

It is an example of how social networks have over the years become a source of support for the residents living in the rental flats in the estate of Henderson Heights.

By the end of September 2025, the residents will have to bid farewell to the estate and their friends – 675 households living in two-room flats in this estate will have to relocate, as the Housing Board is reviewing development plans for the area.

Many residents were understandably reluctant.

Experts say involuntary relocation can cause significant social, logistical and financial challenges for these residents, many of whom are low-wage shift workers, single parents, elderly, or people with disabilities or special needs – in other words, folk who already face precarious circumstances.

The ongoing Henderson Heights relocation is the sixth such exercise involving rental flats in the past five years. Other relocations have been done in Merpati Road, Sin Ming, Toa Payoh and Spooner Road.

Efforts are made to mitigate the impact of these transitions for rental flat residents.

For instance, the authorities have set up inquiry counters in residents’ existing estates where these relocations are carried out.

In Henderson Heights, residents have been able to select their replacement rental flats and collect their keys at HDB’s on-site counter, which is hosted at the We Love Learning Centre at the foot of Block 93, instead of having to go to HDB Hub in Toa Payoh.

Residents and community workers said this was a big help, considering many of the people living there are elderly residents who might not be very mobile.

Community workers also said HDB has also increased the rehousing allowance, from $1,000 per household in Dakota Crescent to $2,500 per family in more recent exercises, in order to defray the cost of moving.

The Henderson Community Team at the Beyond Social Services charity said it was encouraged that the grassroots team and HDB had engaged social service agencies in the Henderson area early on in the relocation process to discuss how they could support residents together.

Ms Joan Pereira, an MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC, also said the grassroots team of her Henderson-Dawson ward will share information with agencies working in the estates where Henderson Heights residents are being moved to, so they will continue to receive social support.

These efforts, which require a considerable amount of resources, go a long way towards making the experience of relocation less stressful for residents.

But these moves can still have a deep impact on residents.

For starters, it takes time to foster the relationships and networks of support that residents have come to depend on in their former estates.

At the moment, nearly 50 Henderson Heights residents go to the THK Active Ageing Centre @ Bukit Merah View (Henderson) at Block 93 regularly for games and exercise. About half of them live alone.

The centre’s programme assistant Wee Sock Khim pointed out that while these elderly residents can join other Active Ageing Centres near their new homes, some “feel a bit uncertain about adjusting to their new estates, as it will take time to build connections in a new environment”.

As newcomers in their new estates, residents will have to start from scratch and assimilate into existing communities and norms – a tall order for people who may not have had to move in decades.

Residents told The Straits Times they would also miss the support from a network of volunteers who have helped them with everything from free tuition for their children to groceries and food rations.

As a result, community workers said these relocations can sometimes lead to residents becoming more socially isolated.

Mr Lim Jingzhou, co-founder of the Cassia-Merpati Resettlement Team – a volunteer group that has helped residents affected by relocation exercises – pointed to the 2016 relocation of about 400 households from an old rental estate in Dakota Crescent as an example.

The majority of these residents, many of them elderly, were moved to Block 52 Cassia Crescent, a large high-rise block about 800m away from their old estate.

While their new home might not seem that much farther away from old haunts like the hawker centre, markets and other amenities, Mr Lim said the extra travel time of 10 minutes for the average person can take as long as half an hour for residents with mobility issues.

Some residents could not make the journey, and stopped going down to community spaces as regularly, said Mr Lim, adding that several of them ended up becoming more socially isolated.

Mr Roger Neo, executive director of Tung Ling Community Services, which ran a Care and Friends Centre at Block 10 Dakota Crescent, said some elderly residents also struggled with a fear of heights after moving into their new 18-storey block in Cassia Crescent.

In their previous home of Dakota Crescent, the tallest block was seven storeys high.

These adjustment issues are not quite so different from those faced by kampung dwellers in the 1960s who moved into HDB flats.

In the coming years, more relocations could be on the cards as the public housing system ages, and as redevelopment efforts grow.

The Ministry of National Development said in November 2023 that eight public rental blocks are planned to be cleared progressively over the next five years.

Community workers such as Mr Lim say the current approach to relocation relies on local agencies and grassroots rising to the occasion to work together in supporting residents, but added that this might not be sustainable in the long run.

He suggested creating a team to handle these relocation exercises that will not just ensure residents have new rental homes to move to, but also coordinate support efforts between different community agencies and the grassroots.

It will also allow the knowledge gained from supporting residents with previous relocation exercises to be consolidated so that processes for future relocations can be improved, he said.

These efforts can provide residents with the assurance that there is a dedicated team to look after them during the relocation, and check on how they are settling in after the move – and make these relocations less stressful.