In the last two years, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) has received more than 230 requests from those living in public rental flats for a change of tenant under the Joint Singles Scheme, Minister of State for National Development Koh Poh Koon said in Parliament on Monday (Feb 29).
There are around 12,000 households under the scheme.
In 2015, HDB received 2,184 rental applications – of which, 398 were under the Joint Singles Scheme.
If disputes arise, Dr Koh said HDB will advise tenants to settle them amicably, or seek help from the grassroots organisations or the Community Mediation Centre. If an agreement cannot be reached, both tenants will have to find another eligible single to share a flat with.
If the dispute cannot be settled and one person needs to move out, Dr Koh said HDB will advise the remaining person to include another eligible single to retain the flat. Meanwhile, the outgoing person may submit a fresh application to rent another public rental flat with another eligible person.
Dr Koh said there are no plans to allow singles to rent a flat alone. For those who need to stay alone for exceptional reasons, such as medical grounds, HDB will assess their requests on a case-by-case basis, he added.
Still, he said HDB has been providing one-room rental flats with partitions to separate sleeping areas.
“Starting from some projects under the 2013 building plan, such one-room flats are further designed with partitions and doors that fully compartmentalise the sleeping areas such that each occupant will have the semblance of his or her own bedroom,” said Dr Koh.
“To date we have allocated 94 out of the 152 completed one-room flats in Sengkang, Yishun and Sembawang with partition walls. Another 17 flats with partition walls and 384 flats with compartments are currently under construction. The first batch of 15 flats with compartments will be ready for allocation after they are completed in the third quarter of 2016 in Tampines Town,” he said.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 29 Feb 2016