Mouldy walls, pungent smell: Volunteers clean up 'uninhabitable' Boon Lay flat that housed 47 cats

With 47 cats in the flat, a woman struggled to clean her Boon Lay home.

She recently received help for her dire living situation, thanks to a group of volunteers who cleared the clutter and repainted her house. 

Last Sunday (July 14), volunteers from Helping Joy visited Mdm Z's home, which became uninhabitable after one of her family members hoarded cats in the flat. 

Helping Joy is a charity organisation which helps the elderly and the needy by cleaning their homes and providing them with basic necessities. 

Photos shared on Helping Joy's Facebook page show miscellaneous items piled up in the flat, and the walls stained with mould. 

"The strong pungent smell was soaked into the walls and cabinets. The wall has serious mould issues and the whole house was covered with cat furs," wrote the charity organisation. 

"Mdm Z with an asthma condition tried to clean up the house on multiple occasions but her efforts had been in vain."  

Joined by a team from Turnkey Projects, a local contractor, volunteers helped to declutter Mdm Z's home and thoroughly clean the flat. 

Minister for National Development Desmond Lee, who is a Member of Parliament for West Coast GRC, also helped with the clean-up efforts. 

In a Facebook post on Monday, he thanked the volunteers for their hard work, and shared that the animals have also since been rescued. 

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AsiaOne has contacted Helping Joy for more information.

READ ALSO: Neighbours raise a stink over woman rearing 40 cats in her Ang Mo Kio flat

claudiatan@asiaone.com