Young and on the streets: Number of under-35s rough sleeping on the rise in Singapore

SINGAPORE – At 17, Jemina (not her real name) packed her bags and left home.

After her father died and her mother remarried, the house no longer felt safe to her. There was often no food at home for her after school or during holidays, and she would stay in her room.

She moved into her junior college’s hostel, but left a few months before her A-level exams because her lease ran out after she repeated one year. By then, her mother and stepfather had made it clear to her that they did not want her back home after some conflict, she told The Straits Times.

Her nights were then spent in friends’ homes or in public areas.

The then teenager would carry her luggage with her during the day, spend time at playgrounds at night, or pull all-nighters at 24-hour fast-food chains.

When she turned 20 and was accepted into a university, she moved into a student dormitory. But due to eyesight issues and mental health concerns, she decided to withdraw from school to focus on recovery.

Jemina, who is now living with a family who opened their home to her, struggles to share her vulnerable past with anyone her age.

“Even adults at my school saw me as being difficult rather than as one who was suffering. Some teachers avoided me during the time I needed help the most. I was very alone,” the young woman told ST.

She said that her peers in the church and schools she attended grew up in privileged homes, and the extent of their problems was misunderstandings between friends.

“My struggles with being homeless were unheard of and uncomfortable to listen to. I isolated myself.”

Jemina is one of the young and homeless in Singapore.

Rough sleepers younger than 35 tend to be elusive and are not as easy to identify as the older ones because they do not sleep on the streets, said volunteers and social workers.

But the community groups and volunteers who help them say they have seen an increase in the number of young rough sleepers aged below 35.

Homeless Hearts of Singapore, whose members go out at night six times a week to befriend rough sleepers, told ST it has seen an increase in the number of young people who ask for help or support.

Up to end-October, almost half, or 49.5 per cent, of the 103 requests for help it received were from rough sleepers under the age of 35. This is a proportionate increase from 37 per cent in 2022.

The group said the main reasons for young people sleeping on the streets include conflicts with parents because of religion or other beliefs, tensions at home causing mental distress, and family violence.

Many do not feel safe at home but lack the finances to rent accommodation, the spokesman said.

They may not be eligible to apply for a Build-To-Order flat or a subsidised rental flat if they are below 35. Instead, they move between friends’ homes or sleep rough.

Mr Kenneth Thong, who opens his home to those in need of a place to stay or a listening ear, say young people are good at hiding the fact that they sleep rough or are homeless. Many know the work schedule of cleaners so they know when to exit stairwells and other spaces without being spotted.

Since he and his wife Adeline started the initiative called The Last Resort in 2007, they said they have hosted countless people, many of whom are youth under 26.

“You don’t think of teenagers when you think of homelessness in Singapore. But it is a real issue, and it is more prevalent than you would imagine,” he said.

In 2021, a street count by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy found 616 people on the streets. This number dipped to 530 in 2022, when the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) did a similar count. 

No street count was done in 2023 and 2024. The street count in 2021 included a rough breakdown of age, and found that almost half of the rough sleepers were older than 50, while 3 per cent were aged 30 and below.

In response to queries, MSF said there are now 22 Safe, Sound Sleeping Places (S3Ps) since the initiative was set up in 2018. As at end-July 2025, there were about 100 individuals living in the S3Ps, it added.

S3Ps are facilities set up within community premises to provide the homeless with sheltered spaces to rest for the night and access to basic amenities like mattresses, cabinets, charging points and shower facilities.

Bless Community Services (BCS) runs S3Ps in five churches, providing 36 beds in total. It said the utilisation rate of these spaces varies seasonally, but they have been operating at full capacity for the past three months.

“Unfortunately, this means we have had to turn away some individuals who sought shelter with us,” said a BCS spokesman, adding that the youth comprise a small proportion of its base.

Catholic Welfare Services (CWS) runs a street outreach initiative to engage rough sleepers and the homeless. The organisation did not reply to queries, but its annual reports show an increase in clients in the past two years.

Its night mission and shelter initiative had 192 new clients in FY2023-2024, and the number rose to 317 new clients in FY2024-2025. The annual reports did not provide a breakdown of ages.

The Ministry of National Development told ST it received 175 reports of rough sleeping through its OneService channels in 2024.

The OneService app and website have a Help Neighbour feature for members of the public to alert agencies to individuals in need, with a specific category for rough sleepers.

For 25-year-old Sarah (not her real name), affording rent each month was a coin toss. She became the sole breadwinner and caregiver for her father, a stroke survivor, after her mother died in 2019.

She worked as a door-to-door salesperson and took on other jobs, such as kitchen assistant and private tutor, to afford rent in the open market.

She and her father found themselves without a home in December 2023 after she could not pay the month’s rent, and moved into a Homeless Hearts volunteer’s home for a few weeks. She stressed over how to keep herself and her dad off the streets with no funds.

With the help of a family service centre, she was referred to a hostel, where they stayed for two weeks.

“Living between these temporary accommodations was a struggle. If Homeless Hearts and the family service centre did not step in and if the timing was not right, we would have had a much rougher sleeping situation,” she said.

The stress took a toll on her mental health. Friends she thought she could depend on disappeared when she asked for help to ensure that her father does not need to sleep rough.

“I carried a lot of self-blame and self-loathing for not being able to protect my father, who was my protector when I was a child. I felt like I had failed him and myself. I hated myself for being so naive and believing that I had a support system.”

Both Sarah and Jemina said they hope for more focused support for young people struggling with rough sleeping and homelessness.

“We have less life experience, and we may not know where to go or who to ask for help, which intensifies feelings of helplessness and makes us less likely to seek help, thinking that all hope is lost,” said Sarah.

Jemina said she hopes for more people to open up spaces for homeless teens, and wishes that the community could be more loving towards them.

“I really wish there were more people who are aware of this issue,” she said.

If more help, support and information are readily available, Sarah said, “I hope that more young people can see that it is not the end of the road for them”.