SINGAPORE – Upgrading works for about 305,000 Housing Board flats – or 95 per cent of the units that were built up to 1986 and eligible for the Home Improvement Programme (HIP) – have been completed as at last Friday.
Another 11,000 flats – or 4 per cent – are being upgraded, with HIP voting yet to take place for the remaining 1 per cent.
Next in line are the 230,000 flats completed between 1987 and 1997. So far, 1,200 have been upgraded while works are ongoing for 55,000.
HIP has three components – essential improvements, optional improvements and Enhancement for Active Seniors (Ease).
Essential improvements, such as repair of spalling concrete and replacement of pipe sockets, are fully paid for by the Government.
Subsidies exist for optional improvements, such as new entrance doors and gates, and the Ease programme that provides elderly-friendly fittings such as grab bars and slip-resistant treatment to toilet floor tiles.
Visiting an HDB precinct in Jurong West undergoing HIP upgrading on Sunday, Minister for National Development Desmond Lee announced an expansion of the Ease programme to include two new elderly-friendly fittings from Tuesday.
These are a customised ramp for flats with more than three steps up to the entrance, and a mechanical wheelchair lifter for flats that cannot install ramps due to site constraints.
Home owners eligible for Ease can apply when their unit is undergoing HIP.
Ease, which has drawn more than 283,900 applications since its introduction in 2012, is also available separately under direct application to the HDB.
Eligible applicants include those with a family member above 65, with the age lowered to 60 for those who require help with at least one of the activities of daily living, such as showering and feeding.
Asked if the upgrading works will be affected by HDB’s ramping up of construction of Build-To-Order (BTO) flats, Mr Lee said: “The fact that we are ramping up construction of BTO flats should not affect the pace at which we’re doing the home upgrading projects.
“We are working very closely with the industry, especially with the SME contractors who helped to do the HIP projects to ensure that we’re able to provide home improvement and Ease options for our citizens,” he added.
Mr Abdul Jalil Abdul Karim said the customised ramp offered under Ease has made it more convenient for him to take his mother out of his Jurong West flat, which is elevated with two steps.
The 64-year-old, a part-time technician in an engineering firm, used to find it physically demanding helping his 86-year-old mother up or down the two steps and onto the wheelchair.
Now, it just takes five minutes to assemble the ramp before wheeling his mother in and out of the flat.
The father of three, who lives with his mother and daughter, sees the mechanical wheelchair lifter as a better form of mobility for himself should he need to use a wheelchair in future.
“My mom has many children to take care of her. For me, I have only three. In future, when I am on my own, the wheelchair lifter would be more practical,” he said.
Apart from taking up the customised ramp offered under Ease when his flat was eligible for HIP, he also opted for all the other items under the optional improvements and Ease programme.
When asked if he would move out of his flat to a more elderly-friendly apartment, he cited financial viability as a factor in such a move.
“Furthermore, I have lived here for decades, and I am used to this neighbourhood,” said Mr Jalil who bought the flat from HDB in 1987.
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
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