This is a letter from lilydaam which was posted under our “Submission Policy” section. The details of the letter’s content have not been verified by theonlinecitizen. It is posted here for further discussion and not as validation of any claims.
They are sometimes ‘homeless by choice’, said Parliamentary Secretary (National Development) Mohd Maliki Osman on 24th Jan 2007.
Does this elite who takes 1.2 millions of our peasant taxpayers money knows what he is talking about. The anguish we go through trying to find ways and means to get or maintain a roof over our head? People are homeless not by choice but because of screwed up, heartless policies from MAS and HDB. Banks are fair weather friends.
HDB heartless and clueless
We received a reply about our loan from a Ms TANG, (MS) SENIOR EXECUTIVE ESTATES OFFICER, HDB, who obviously think we are dubes, gullible and senile. Her reply is high handed and heartless with no compassion. Her answers are canned and unimaginative, clueless on human plight. Empty on empathy.
Does these attitudes sound familiar. Yes. It pervade the whole of HDB. They foreclosed your homes. Forced families to live in void decks, under the flyover, or in the rubbish damp or on beaches. From 2002 to 2006, some 360 households voluntarily surrendered their flats after defaulting on their mortgage loan repayments. Why would anyone “voluntarily” give up the family home, all the CPF life savings, and maybe continue be in debt to the HDB for any shortfall between the market valuation and loan outstanding? Then the gahmen turn around and remark: “They are sometimes ‘homeless by choice’. If this is a joke, it is in bad taste. He is not in touch with his brain. Where is the “software”? Where is the caring society that PM talks about?
Below is her reply:
We refer to your appeal for an HDB loan.
2 You informed us that you have been working overseas since 2002. You have been retrenched and you will be returning to Singapore.
3 HDB provides housing loan to eligible flat buyers, subject to credit assessment and the prevailing mortgage loan criteria. Flat buyers must not be private property owners (Then why did HDB provide application form to allow us to appeal for the loan? Ironic isn’t it?) and they have to be gainfully employed with regular income to be eligible for a housing loan. (We may not be employed but that doesn’t mean we have no regular income. She assumes too much.)
4 Based on the information you provided, you and your wife are private property owners. Moreover, as you do not have a job after you returned to Singapore, you are not eligible to apply for an HDB loan. (Ms Tang time and time again implied that we are not employable in Singapore. We are not gainfully employed at the moment doesn’t mean we are not employable. Retirement age doesn’t mean we’re useless or is it? Yet they cry for more pay. Are they worth paying millions? Such microscopic, myopic mentality of a civil servant or rather stat board.)
5 You may wish to consider living in the private property for the time being and using the proceeds from the collective sales of your private property to buy a resale flat without taking any loan, subsequently. (She obviously think we are dubes who need to be taught how to suck eggs. If we purchase an apartment, if need be we can sell it and downgrade. If we spent our retirement funds on rent, we cannot recoup the sum.)
We’re not allowed to rent from HDB. Private properties are far too expensive for us to rent. We’re not quitters but we are being forced out. We thought we can go home to retire…… But where is home? We are 3rd class citizen in our own country. PR who don’t serve NS yet get S$30,000 to help them to relocate when they take up citizenship. We pay income tax during our productive years. Our children spent 2½ brainless years digging trenches. Yet during our twilight years we’re grappling straws trying to stay a float in the midst of so call globalization. We’re the group that can die but cannot afford to retire, can die but cannot afford to be hospitalized.
What is the government doing for us? Nothing. Obviously nothing because PAP don’t want us to have ”crutch mentality”. You die your business. They grab as much as they can from the coffers of Singapore Inc. 1.2million not enough. 2.2 million still note enough. Jack Neo said: Money not enough.
