Age in place & with grace

Motivated by his dad's loneliness, he creates co-living apartments that enable seniors to...

- By RACHEL CHIA

Seven years after his wife's death, Mr Joshua Goh's father stopped taking regular showers. His hair grew unkempt, and he seemed indifferent to his appearance.

Back then, in 2020, the 84-year-old lived alone in a three-room Housing Board flat with a domestic helper. His four adult children had long moved out to live with their families. Most of his friends had died, and he spent most of his days alone at home. He also "didn't talk much for a long time", says Mr Goh.

This worried him. And when the 45-year-old asked his dad why he neglected his upkeep, the elderly man, now 88, replied simply: "For whom to see?"

That reaction stung. It revealed the depth of his isolation. "It was hard (for him) to go to the coffee shop and start chatting with other people," says Mr Goh, "so he kept to himself."

Determined to find a solution, Mr Goh started searching for living arrangements that offered human connection, in the form of a community.

But six months of searching yielded little. That's when the entrepreneur took things into his own hands. A former architect, Mr Goh had founded and sold two start-ups, including a hospitality venture that ran co-living hotels and serviced apartments.

"I thought perhaps I can do a different kind of serviced apartment for seniors," Mr Goh says, "organise a unit for (my dad), and form a community for him."