By Pei Ling, Community Worker
What is a home to you? Is it just a place filled with your stuff? Where you store your sofa, TV, bed, clothes?
These are questions we ask ourselves as we walk along the corridors of the small flats in the neighbourhoods we serve. We catch glimpses of everyday life along these corridors – mismatched footwear, potted plants, toys scattered about, and front doors of various colours – some freshly painted, some faded. Inside, some of these flats have varying degrees of stuff, but they most certainly hold more than that. For each is Home to a person or family. Each space, no bigger than 45 square metres, is where people aspire to and work towards a more fulfilling life. Each filled with our intangible stuff – our memories.
But these aren’t permanent homes. They are public rental housing flats, and there are 286 in Singapore. They cater to families that are among the lowest income earners here. Many who live in such flats have done what they can to make their flats their own places of comfort, their home. This is where memories are made, where friendships form, and where a sense of belonging to a community is born.
So what happens when the march of progress demolishes these old blocks of flats to make way for taller, larger abodes and its residents relocated? Such change, though necessary, is often a bittersweet experience. For some, such change represents a chance to start over. Others feel a sense of loss because all that is familiar is gone.
Children and youths may struggle to adapt to new schools and environments, finding it difficult to form new friendships. Seniors, too, will face challenges adjusting to a new environment, especially when it means losing connections with old friends.
Yet, there is hope because it is people who make a home.
American writer N.K. Jemisin said it best, ““Home is what you take with you, not what you leave behind.” When our Neighbourhood Leaders relocate, they will continue their good work – albeit in new neighbourhoods. They will help create new ‘villages’ – neighbourhoods where new memories are made with new friends and connections.
Such transitions, though painful, are also opportunities to rebuild not just brick and mortar structures, but reaffirm the importance of values like kindness, empathy, trust, cooperation and mutual support that can transform a block of flats into a caring community, and houses into homes.
