Some
elderly people are now spending their nights on the streets instead of under
shelter.
It was reported in The Straits Times that
about 30 elderly people regularly spend their nights at Sago Lane in Chinatown.
Stallholders at food centres nearby said that
the number of elderly vagrants has doubled in the past six months.
According to social workers, many of them do
so because they quarrel with roommates over reasons like unhappiness over poor
hygiene, noise, and accusations of theft.
Some of the elderly initially claimed that
they did not have a home to return to, but later admitted to living in rental
flats nearby.
Some also said they were thrown out by their
families.
Others said they preferred to sleep outdoors,
or that they had no room to sleep in their rental flats because they had filled
it with too much junk.
The elderly vagrants are mostly men clad in
singlets, shorts and slippers who use large pieces of cardboard as makeshift
mattresses.
Others simply lie on plastic chairs, exposed
to the elements.
A centre manager at the Chin Swee branch of
the Kreta Ayer Senior Activity Centre told The Straits Times that about half of
the 1,200 elderly residents in his area are unhappy with their roommates.
About 20 per cent of those who encounter such
problems then move into the streets or ask for new roommates. The remaining
bear with the situation or try to work out their differences.
The authorities picked up 339 lone vagrants in
2010, an increase from 217 in 2009. 130 of them were aged 60 and above.
Almost 80 per cent of these elderly vagrants
were male.
Approximately 40 per cent of the 44,000 rental
units in Singapore are occupied by at least one person aged 65 and above.
Single seniors are required by the Housing
Development Board (HDB) to apply for a rental flat in pairs so they can take
care of each other and make the best use of space.
A HDB spokesman said most tenants get along.
Those who cannot find a flatmate are provided
with a waiting list of others who are also applying for rental flats.
They can then look for and contact potential
flatmates themselves.
AsiaOne
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