One-way ticket to nowhere

Source : Straits Times – 20 Jun 2009

THE first question many people ask when they move into one-roomers is: ‘How do I get out of here?’

Mr Michael Goh is now struggling along after once enjoying the good life as a sub-contractor on $10,000 a month, living in a four-room flat in Bishan.

All that changed in 2001, when his main contractor absconded with a huge sum of his money. Mr Goh, 47, had to wind up his business and sell his flat. He moved to Jalan Kukoh in 2006.

Now a maintenance officer, he gets by on $1,200 a month. ‘I would love to upgrade. But I simply do not have enough to buy from the open market,’ he says.

He is married to Chinese national Jenny Yan, 38, who is waiting to become a Permanent Resident. The couple would then qualify, under HDB rules, to buy a subsidised flat from the Housing Board.

While the Gohs may make it out of Jalan Kukoh eventually, many of their fellow residents are stuck. Most do menial or odd jobs and barely earn enough to live on, let alone save anything.

Take Miss Masriani Akab, 31. The primary school drop-out earns about $700 a month as a cleaner. She supplements this as a home mover on her days off, earning about $35 each time.

Till today, the fights that often break out late at night among drunks on the ground floor of Block 2 frighten her. But given her limited savings and career prospects, Miss Masriani has come to accept that Jalan Kukoh is for the long haul.

‘Live here good lah. Even though it’s rented from the Government, I like this feeling of having my own flat,’ says the single woman, who lives with her 58-year-old mother.

Official figures last year showed the monthly median household income of those living in one- and two-room flats was about $750 – just 15 per cent of the national average of $4,950.

A 2007 Ministry of Manpower report found that all occupational groups enjoyed wage gains in the past decade, except cleaners, labourers and related workers, whose median gross wages remained almost unchanged at $968 a month. In fact, inflation means their wages had fallen in real terms.

Workers in these fields also get the axe sooner. In 2007, the number of jobs lost for production and transport operators, cleaners and labourers was about four times as many as those among clerical, sales and service workers and about twice that among executives and technicians.

The downturn also makes it harder for such lower-skilled workers, who are increasingly displaced by foreign workers, to find new jobs.

Ms Jolain Chay, a senior manager from the Central Community Development Council (CDC), says: ‘During good times, there will be plenty of odd jobs available, so they are able to manage their living expenses. However, during bad times, they may not get enough jobs and this will adversely affect their income.’

With rising retrenchments, the number of people seeking help from the Central CDC has also increased. It alone processed, on average, 1,311 applications for financial assistance between January to May this year, against 834 for the whole of last year.

Jalan Kukoh resident Thomas Chan Chee Keong, 60, sought help when he was retrenched last November as a logistics supervisor after 24 years at SembCorp Logistics.

He was referred to the Security Industry Institute in Paya Lebar for a security officer training course. He now works as a security officer at the National Cancer Centre, earning around $1,400 a month – enough to live on but not to buy a ticket out of his one-room rental flat.

‘I’m already 60 and in a few years, I can finally retire,’ says the bachelor. ‘I am just happy to have a roof over my head till the day I kick the bucket.’

Like Mr Chan, other Jalan Kukoh residents have gradually become content with their lot and even attached to their surroundings. Others have simply given up all hope of ever moving out.

Dr Tam Chen Hee, a sociology teaching fellow at Nanyang Technological University, notes: ‘Although some might say they do not feel a sense of belonging to the rental flats, by putting up lanterns and decorations around their homes, their actions speak otherwise.’

The tougher job market – about 16,000 workers lost their jobs last year, the highest figure in five years – also makes it much harder to upgrade. And amid the world’s worst financial slump in 60 years, survival – not upgrading – is now the top concern at Jalan Kukoh.

Even without the downturn, academics believe it is difficult for a person from a one-room rental to distance themselves from the stigma that comes from the lowest end of the housing market.

Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser, a sociologist from the National University of Singapore, grew up in Jalan Kukoh. He says: ‘Living in or coming from an area associated with poverty in a largely affluent society like Singapore’s is never a good feeling.’

The author of Does Class Matter? – a study of social stratification and orientations – says: ‘We need to give the people who live there the opportunities that they would otherwise lack.’

There are measures in this year’s Budget to help rental tenants, such as rent waivers, but these are not seen as long- term efforts to help low-income families break out of the poverty trap.

The Government is also responding to the demand by building more rental flats, upping supply by 20 per cent to 50,000 units by 2012.

With characteristic pragmatism, it sees such flats as here to stay, as there will always be a segment of the population unable to afford their own homes.