The study was done by Doctor Ng Kok Hoe, a senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, who led the team of scientists at the school’s Interpersonal Inclusion Project to complete Singapore’s second nationwide study on homelessness.
Amongst its findings, the research found that the size of homelessness failed to change significantly in between 2019 and 2021, despite intense condition intervention and the far-reaching impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The combined size from the street homeless plus temporary shelter populations in 2021 has been 1, 036, comparable to the 1, 115 documented in 2019 .
In addition to street counts, researchers furthermore conducted in-depth interviews with 51 residents at a temporary shelter for homeless people, to understand their individual circumstances, housing chronicles and pathways into homelessness.
The majority of the interview participants were Singaporean men, old 50 years and above, with the majority having only principal or secondary education. Many were working or looking for function and about half had been either divorced or widowed.
Besides the two groups, the research also identified one more group of homeless persons among its interview participants.
This group, which includes more men than woman, is made up of those who have been rough resting even before the pandemic hit Singapore within February 2020.
The long-term destitute persons have been to the streets from a few months to up to quarter of a century, with their ages which range from the 30s to the 70s.
Several had completely lost contact with their family and had poor encounters with public rental housing. They were found while rough sleeping during the pandemic and referred to the refuge.
All of them got experienced problems within their family relationships such as historical misunderstandings with parents or siblings that led to individuals leaving the family in a young age or acrimonious breakups involving years of conflict, even violence.
Describing their particular work and finances, the report mentioned this group comprises of people who have low-wage and insecure jobs plus live in extreme low income.
They had little or no savings, and had in order to carefully ration anything they received by cutting back on basic needs like food and toiletries, the report found.