2,000 flats being readied

Source : Straits Times - 16 Jan 2009

MORE than 2,000 rental flats will be added to the supply of public housing early next year to help the needy.
The move was announced in Parliament by National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan in November 2006.
The first batch of converted flats - comprising 180 one- and two-room units in Block 852, Woodlands Street 83 - were allocated in January last year. In March, Blocks 188 and 191 in Boon Lay Drive were done.
In addition, 290 converted units at Redhill will be added to the supply this year.
An HDB spokesman told The Straits Times that toilets and kitchens were added and improved to the Boon Lay flats.
Each flat has new windows, vents, entrance doors and gates, and internal doors. Floors were retiled and the flats rewired. Elder-friendly features such as grab bars and lever taps were also incorporated.
‘Lifts and essential services in the common areas were upgraded to meet the needs of the increased number of residents,’ the spokesman added.
Mr Mah had said then that such flats would help ease the burden of those who are really needy.
‘This additional supply will help meet demand from lower-income Singaporeans who cannot afford or are not yet ready to buy their own flats,’ he said.
Apart from converting the three-room flats, HDB is also building 976 new rental flats at Choa Chu Kang, Sembawang and Yishun. The final batch will be ready by early next year.