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SINGAPORE: The living standards of residents in rental flats was discussed in Parliament on Wednesday.
MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC, Indranee Rajah urged the government to invest more resources to break the cycle of poverty.
She suggested more infant care, childcare and student care facilities in each rental housing precinct.
She said: "I see the rental flats as a catchment area of young children where we have the opportunity to do a lot of good. Here, we have the children who have potential. Just because they are poor doesn't mean that they are stupid.
“All it means that you have a child with potential but is at a disadvantage and the question is how you help them overcome those disadvantages so that their potential can be realised. If you build an educational eco-system within the rental housing precinct, it makes it much easier for the parents to send their children down.”
She added that Singaporeans should help fellow citizens grow and achieve a better life.
She referred to the recent complaints by residents of Pasir Ris and Tampines over rental blocks being built next to their blocks.
"They were afraid the rental flat neighbours would make the area unsafe and seedy and complaints that having rental flats near their homes would cause the value of their properties to drop. This seems to me to be a fundamentally wrong approach," she said.
She added that Singapore must bear in mind the vision to enable all Singaporeans to progress and prosper.
Mdn Indranee explained: "We should not forget that the people who need rental housing are our fellow Singaporeans. Singapore was built on the vision that we would, as a team, achieve prosperity and progress for all. There is something inherently objectionable in saying that I do not want somebody poor to live next to me because that housing for the poor will affect the value of my property."
Another MP, Mr Ong Kian Min of Tampines GRC, said more assistance should be given to the lower-income groups who live in smaller HDB flats.
He said: "This year's budget provides for higher relief for taxpayers living with parents but this is useful only to those who earn enough to pay tax. We should also extend financial help to lower-income Singaporeans who do not earn enough to have to pay tax, but live with their parents or have their parents live with them." - CNA/vm
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