Moving around with EASE

We piloted HDB’s EASE (Enhancement for Active Seniors) programme in two towns – Bukit Merah and Kallang/Whampoa Towns in July 2012. The purpose of EASE is to help seniors age in place and to reduce the risk of falls at home. Such falls have been the main cause of admission to hospital emergency departments. Minimising falls therefore prevents pain, suffering and unnecessary hospitalisation.

How to prevent falls at home?

Consultation with seniors and experts like occupational therapists revealed that a few simple retrofits at home can be effective: grab bars in toilets, enhanced slip-resistant treatment on floors in toilets and bathrooms. In addition, good ramps to help those on wheelchair moving around are also desirable.

That was how the EASE programme came about. To put theory into practice, we launched EASE as a pilot. Most of the expenses for putting in these retrofits are borne by HDB, with Singapore Citizen households having to pay only between 5 to 12.5% of the cost, depending on the flat type.

EASE turned out to be useful and popular, with more than 1,700 households applying for it since the pilot launch in July 2012.

We have decided to make EASE available nationwide. Seniors may apply for EASE directly with HDB. We are also working with hospitals to help make EASE known to those discharged patients whom they think can benefit from it.

Last week, I visited Mdm Wong Foong Meng, staying at Ubi Avenue 1, who has benefited from EASE. She’s 85 years old and recently suffered a fall in her flat, and was hospitalised for hip and shoulder surgery.

While in hospital, her son, Danny, applied for EASE. HDB coordinated with the contractor so that all the EASE improvement items were installed before her discharge.

I’m glad to see Mdm Wong recuperating well at home. She now moves around the flat with confidence and peace of mind.

To reach out to more senior residents, HDB officers have come up with some rather innovative methods to promote awareness of EASE. Recognising that our seniors may be more comfortable communicating in their mother tongues or dialects, they have produced videos to explain the features and benefits of EASE in different languages and dialects. One HDB staff even drew cartoons to help explain the administrative process!

Yesterday, HDB also launched a mobile app, making applications even more convenient.

If you or your neighbours think that EASE can be useful, HDB is just a phone call away.

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Crane Operators are Critical to Construction Productivity

We need to up construction productivity urgently. One key strategy is to promote standardization and prefabrication. In prefab construction, building components are made in the factories and transported to construction sites where they are hoisted by cranes for assembly. To support this productivity strategy, we need many crane operators on site. For example, for each HDB block under construction, the contractor needs to deploy one crane on the ground. This level of deployment is not excessive, as the percentage of precast materials used in the construction of BTO flats can be as high as 70%.

Some Singaporeans are joining this highly mechanised and specialised trade as crane operators. Mr Imran, in his late 20s, is one such licensed tower crane operator. He joined Cranetec Pte Ltd last year, and we need more Singaporeans to join this highly specialised and rewarding career.

Based on a 2012 BCA survey, the monthly gross salary (including overtime pay and allowances) of relatively new crane operators can reach $4,000. Those with more years of experience can take home a monthly gross pay of $6,000 to $7,000.

Today, there are about 3,600 active crane operators in the built environment sector, operating various kinds of cranes: Crawler, Mobile and Tower cranes. Half of the operators are Singaporeans. But we need more, a few hundreds more, as we ramp up our BTO programme.

To attract more locals to the trade, BCA recently launched a 1-year ‘Crane Apprenticeship Programme’ (CAP). This comes with an attractive remuneration package and upgrading opportunities. The crane apprentice will undergo a 12-day crane operation training and skill certification at the BCA Academy before embarking on the CAP, once he has obtained his crane licence from the Ministry of Manpower.

CAP is receiving positive response, with its first batch of 6 CAP apprentices starting the programme this month.

One of them is Steven Kok, a 28-year-old father of three young children. He is looking to hone a skill that would provide him with good job prospects and an attractive remuneration. He will soon be starting work with his employer, Leo Ong Construction Pte Ltd. Once he has gained sufficient experience, he intends to upgrade his skills and learn to operate other types of cranes.

We need more Imrans and Stevens so as to reduce our reliance on foreign crane operators. This is a good job with attractive remunerations.

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Revitalising Old Shops

In 2007, HDB introduced the Revitalisation of Shops (ROS) Scheme to help HDB shops enhance their business through injecting vibrancy and strengthening competitiveness.

Under ROS, HDB will co-fund promotional events and upgrading works to the common areas. It is a self-help programme and the local Merchant Associations must take the lead and work closely with shop owners.

One successful ROS project is the recent revamp of the Boon Lay Shopping Centre. It was a success only because of the tireless efforts of the stakeholders: the Boon Lay Merchants’ Association, the shop owners, HDB, and West Coast Town Council.

I checked it out last week. The before-and-after pictures say it all.

Apart from the courtyard, some of the old staircases were replaced with new escalators. It was a welcome addition which brings convenience for shoppers and hence additional customers for the shops in the higher level.

Boon Lay Shopping Centre saw many improvements under the ROS, such as toilet upgrading, new floor tiles, and a spruced up community corner for residents. The old rusty metal railings erected throughout the mall were replaced by stainless steel ones. Unsightly wires were concealed with newly installed cable trays.

HDB said that the shops did not have direct water supply before. Shop owners had to use the common sinks in the toilets. Responding to the shop owners’ feedback, water discharge points were installed in all shops under the ROS. Many of the shop owners I met welcomed this simple and yet important improvement.

With good planning and execution, ROS is a big positive for the shop owners and their customers. Including the Boon Lay Shopping Centre, 4,500 HDB shops in 51 HDB sites have benefited from the ROS scheme, with HDB spending about $7 million in co-funding to date.

Success of course did not come easy. It required hard work. In this case, the perseverance of the Boon Lay Merchants’ Association in pushing for the ROS for Boon Lay Shopping Centre was a critical factor. Not unexpectedly, they encountered some challenges along the way but they never gave up. They were convinced that ROS would be good for all and their persistence and hard work has paid off when we see the positive changes and greater vibrancy in the new centre.

The next batch of ROS sites will be announced soon. I am sure the other Merchants’ Associations will welcome the opportunity to revitalise their shops and remake our heartlands as has happened in Boon Lay.

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No Journey Too Tough

The ASEAN Para Games will be held here in 2015. Our Team Singapore paralympians will no doubt strive to do us proud. But they need our support.

My MND colleagues are doing our part.

Recently, we heard from Dr William Tan that the Table Tennis Association for the Disabled (Singapore) or TTADS had some problem getting training facilities. They have been renting training facilities twice a week at Community Clubs. But it was not easy to make bookings given the high usage at these clubs. Many of them hold day jobs and can only train at night.

The MND Recreational Club stepped forward to help. They modified part of their recreation facility into a wheelchair friendly training venue. This has enabled the TTADS to conduct training up to 6 days a week with full vigour. Their hope is to add to our national success in table-tennis.

By the way, Dr William Tan is an accomplished Paralympic wheelchair marathoner, committed to charities locally and internationally. Illness has not daunted his spirit. He has reinvented himself to play wheelchair table tennis instead and has been promoting para-table tennis as an outreach and rehabilitation programme for both the physically and intellectually disabled.

I hear that TTADS is looking for able-bodied volunteers to help them train. Join them if you can.

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Let’s Talk about Housing

Housing concerns all of us: whether we are buying or selling.

It is an emotive topic, as it is the biggest purchase in our life.

It is also controversial because the players involved have completely opposite objectives: buyer wants a low price, seller wants it high.

Compared to all other countries, Singapore has achieved much in housing its people. Our home ownership rate is the highest in the world. 90% own their own homes.

But a temporary imbalance in supply and demand has pushed up property prices to bubble-like level. We are pulling out all stops to deflate the bubble without causing it to suddenly burst. This requires skills and luck.

After much effort, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel, though we are still not yet out of it.

But we now have a breather to think about longer term reforms. Last month in Parliament, I invited Singaporeans to collectively mull over our housing challenges and shape future housing policies together.

Many Singaporeans have responded to the call: they write to newspaper forum pages and MND to air their views. Our media, too, also write regularly on this topic.

We want to hear from many more: buyers, sellers, academics and industry experts.

From next week, MND will launch a series of Our Singapore Conversation on Housing. Please join in the conversation and let us have your views, concerns and aspirations.

If you are unable to join us in person, you can still share with us your views here.

Let us collectively re-examine assumptions and re-visit key policies. Let us identify areas of consensus, but keep an open mind on enhancements that are necessary, while being mindful of the impact of changes on different stakeholders.

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Building a City for All Ages

With the completion of the Barrier-Free Accessibility programme in November last year, our HDB neighbourhood has become more age-friendly. Accessibility has been enhanced for all, especially the elderly and physically disabled.

This has enabled wheelchair users to go about in the neighbourhood, enjoying the fresh air in parks, having breakfast at the coffee shops or participating in outdoor activities. They are now able to travel further afield, either with their care-givers or on their own.

In fact, almost all public buildings, including community clubs and MRT stations have achieved some level of basic accessibility. And nearly 9 in 10 buildings along Orchard Road now provide some accessibility features. But we want to do more.

Today, BCA begins a month-long public consultation on the proposed amendments to Singapore’s Code on Accessibility. The Code sets minimum design requirements for buildings and most public spaces. We would like to incorporate more Universal Design features in the built environment to make it more convenient for people of all ages and with different needs to move around.

For this review, BCA will not only reach out to senior citizens and persons with disabilities, but also others such as parents with infants. For example, we are thinking of mandating some buildings to have family friendly facilities such as child-friendly toilets and lactation room for nursing mothers.

Please check out the details at www.bca.gov.sg and let us have your views on how the Code can be enhanced.

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$5 Billion, 5,000 Blocks, 500,000 Families – The LUP Story

Among the many HDB upgrading programmes to improve quality of life in HDB estates, the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) tops the popularity chart. It is welcome by all, our seniors, our mothers with prams, our residents with marketing trolleys. Who does not want a lift which stops at the floor you live in?

Launched in 2001, the LUP has been a massive effort, costing $5 billion and involving much intricate engineering work. But it has been worthwhile. More than 500,000 households in 5,000 blocks have benefited from the LUP.

Over the years, technology has improved to the residents’ advantage. When we started off, a large number of blocks could not be offered the LUP due to technical constraints or high costs. But HDB tirelessly searched for innovative lift solutions to overcome the limitations. Some 800 additional blocks were included in the LUP as a result of these efforts.

One innovation was the “machine-room-less” lifts where the machines and controllers are mounted within the lift shaft, eliminating the need for the lift machine room. With this idea, blocks previously constrained by height limits were able to qualify for LUP. Costs and construction time were also minimised.

Another idea was to use smaller lower-cost “home lifts” in low-rise blocks which have fewer units to share the cost of a new lift. Though smaller, these lifts share the same features as conventional lifts, and are handicapped-friendly.

We are now in the last leg of the LUP, based on current lift technology. Residents in the last few blocks will be polled soon. HDB targets to have the new lifts in these precincts operational by end 2014. The existing lifts will then be upgraded or shut down where they are no longer needed. While the construction industry grapples with worker shortages and other issues, HDB will strive to complete the works as scheduled.

While we are completing the LUP story, we are not shutting it. HDB is mindful that the balance of around 200 blocks is still without lift access at some floors. HDB will continue to look for new ideas and pilot new technology to try to make it feasible for lift access to reach these blocks at some stage in the future. We may or may not achieve it, but we will not give up trying.