by Braema Mathi, SENIOR WRITER

For four years, the newly-weds lived on the beach.

From 2003 to 2007, they lived off their catch from the sea, did odd jobs and washed in public toilets.

At 16, Madam Siti (not her real name), a Primary 4 dropout, married Mr Osman (not his real name), 25, despite parental objections. They were ostracised by both their families.

They lived in a series of pitched tents at Changi, East Coast, then Sembawang beach. When Madam Siti gave birth, her sister and in-laws took them in for a few months before conflicts drove them out to the beach.

This went on till last year.

Madam Siti, now 21, and Mr Osman, now 30, and their two children aged two and five, showed up at the Ministry of Community Development Youth and Sports' Thomson Road headquarters, asking for help to end their nomadic existence.

With rising living costs and property prices, the number of nomadic families is on the rise, according to nine family service centres (FSCs) here. Each of the FSCs says it sees between 10 and 30 such cases each year.

Lakeside FSC counsellor Edwin Quek says: 'We are seeing more cases. The families cannot cope with mortgage loans payments and the cost of living.'

His centre has already received eight calls for help between March and May this year from displaced families, up from one or two cases earlier this year.

Social workers also say they see more families - with one FSC it was one case a month - sleeping at void decks, often with children in tow and showering in public toilets.

This goes on till they are allotted rental flats from the HDB or till they can afford to rent or buy a unit in the open market.

But the wait for an HDB rental unit is now up to 15 months - double the waiting time in 2006. The number of people applying for heavily subsidised HDB rental flats has shot up by at least 30 per cent in the past few months.

Now, there are 4,000 eligible applicants in the queue, waiting for one- and two-room rental units. Depending on household income and other factors, the rents are fixed between $26 and $205 a month for a one-room flat and between $44 and $275 for a two-room unit, a fraction of the market rates.

Fallible family network

According to social workers, most of these transient homeless are divorcees and the down and out.

In some divorce cases, after the matrimonial homes are sold, proceeds split between spouses and creditors paid off, there is often not enough cash or savings left to buy another flat.

Others are caught in a swirl of bad decisions and poor planning, resulting in the banks seizing their flats over unpaid mortgage payments.

The official approach taken in dealing with such families is for social workers at FSCs - as a first option - to encourage homeless families to live with relatives, friends or strangers.

This is also for practical reasons, as relatives often charge less rent - from $150 for a room - compared to the $500 and above that landlords who are strangers charge.

But such arrangements often do not work out. With not just one but several children and boxes of belongings in tow, the goodwill of relatives quickly crumbles under the pressures of living together in a small space.

Social workers cite cases where rules imposed by relatives and landlords - that include no cooking, minimum noise levels and a cap on water usage - are difficult for families to adhere to. Before long, typically no more than a month or two, they are thrown out again or prefer to leave.

When their circle of kin is exhausted, they start living in void decks, beaches, quiet stairwells in commercial buildings, bin centres and out of vans.

'They just want to live on their own, without all the tension of living with others,' said a social worker with 10 years of experience, who declined to be named.

The problem of nomadic families was hotly discussed in Parliament early last year. Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Inderjit Singh noted then that many residents were in negative equity and had defaulted on mortgages, which resulted in repossession of their flats by banks. He asked if these cases were increasing because of the policy change of allowing banks to handle HDB mortgages.

In reply, Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman, Parliamentary Secretary for National Development, said families planning to take up a bank loan should understand the implications of taking on this responsibility.

Each month, about 60 repossessed flats reportedly go on sale. Many of these belong to families which over-extend themselves financially, for example, by buying a bigger flat than they can afford.

'Families often do not manage their budgets well and there is no planning,' said Mr Quek.

Others lose their homes because of sudden illnesses or loss of jobs. Many more are victims of ignorance. They do not know, for example, that the HDB rules include a 30-month waiting period if they have sold their flat bought with certain conditions from the HDB, or that they can apply for another HDB loan or subsidy only subject to conditions, if they have already done so previously.

'They go into this buying and selling of flats without knowing enough about all the policy hitches. They need more guidance,' said Mr Quek.

No room at shelters

The most vulnerable nomads tend to be divorced, lower-income women with children, said Mrs Rachel Lee, a social worker with Fei Yue FSC.

Most landlords are reluctant to take in lone women with children. They wonder if they can pay up and fear getting drawn into their family problems.

'There is also a huge constraint in space as, often, they tend to have a lot of household stuff that they have to take along, besides the children,' she said.

The hardest hit are nomadic children, who need a stable environment but end up on the move all the time, showering in public toilets and witnessing endless family feuds. Many end up skipping school.

Mrs Chua Yen Ching, principal of NorthLight School that caters to students who fail their Primary School Leaving Examination, said: 'It is important for a child to come to school without having such problems as a barrier to his or her learning.'

But there are few long-term solutions in sight.

Singapore currently has only one shelter for displaced families. New Hope Shelter for Displaced Families, run by New Hope Community Services at Yishun, has housed 41 families since it began operations a year ago.

It can accommodate 22 families at any one time. It now has four families on the wait-list - which ranges from 'a few days to weeks, depending on how long it takes current residents to leave', says its centre manager, Mr Ravi Philemon.

Each family can stay up to three months and has to pay $150 a month for utilities and food rations.

There are three other shelters here, meant for battered women. All three - a 40-bedder run by the Good Shepherd Sisters, a 22-bed Star Shelter run by the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations, and a 50-bedder run by the Singapore Anglican Community Services - have taken in homeless families, though they are not equipped to handle children.

Their social workers note that many of the families stay beyond the three months allowed, simply because they cannot afford market rate rentals.

Self-catering shelters?

The HDB has announced that it will build more rental flats, from the current 43,000 units to 50,000, over the next few years. It will also review the eligibility criteria for rental housing to help the 'genuinely poor'.

One way forward, suggests Mr Chua Wei Bin from Ang Mo Kio FSC, is to set up a committee that includes both social workers and HDB officials to better assess options for homeless families.

That way, besides the HDB's eligibility criteria, other issues like family dynamics can be factored in. For example, on paper, a nomadic family may have siblings they can stay with, but they may be estranged or feuding.

Pastor Andrew Khoo of New Hope Community Services, which runs a shelter for the homeless, said that more temporary shelter space will be needed and hopes to raise funds for it.

Associate Professor Ngiam Tee Liang, head of the National University of Singapore's social work department, adds that although the state wants homeless families to seek refuge first with relatives and friends, those who have tried their best but failed to go down that route should not be left out in the cold.

'With close monitoring, genuine families in need must be helped in getting a home,' he said.

Another solution that Mr Gerard Ee, executive director of Beyond Social Services, suggests is to offer a self-catering shelter for families where they manage themselves and their finances on their own.

Once they show that they are capable of moving on, they are given HDB rental units.

'Shelters unfortunately institutionalise dependency. They must be short-term solutions. Families must find their own solutions. This way, we give them that opportunity and also respect their lifestyle, without going into rescue mode,' he said.

The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports placed Madam Siti's family in the New Hope Shelter. They stayed there from June to September last year and were given counselling, budgeting and parenting classes.

Mr Osman, previously a cleaner earning $600 a month, has since landed a higher-paying job with help from the shelter. He is now a car-washer, making $800 a month.

The family now lives with Madam Siti's sister in a one-room flat. They stick to a tight budget worked out by the centre for them - $50 for food, $100 for rental, $100 for transport, the rest for the children.

When Madam Siti turns 21 next month, they will join the queue for an HDB rental flat, forgoing their dreams of buying a flat, as they know they cannot afford it for now and do not wish to get into debt.

'I never want to go back and live at the beach. I want to live in our own house soon and build up our lives,' she said.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on June 22, 2008.