Tiong Bahru and the vote on upgrading: An old estate, a device

The recent failed Home Improvement Programme ballot for two blocks of flats in the heritage enclave has revealed the fragile compact of public housing.

- Tan Dawn Wei Senior Columnist

My bedroom window in my Tiong Bahru walk-up flat overlooks a badminton court which, for years, hardly had any business. Now, unless it rains, I wake up nearly every morning to toc, toc, toc - the sound of pickleball volleying - and come home most evenings to the same paddle battle.

It’s a little annoying, yes. But I accept it as part of communal living - not in the ideological, coop sense, but in the functional sense that HDB estates were designed for: shared spaces, common facilities, social integration. And I appreciate that people are putting these neglected courts to good use again.

What has made me more annoyed is this: when the rest of us get new laundry racks, sewage pipes, waterproofing and other needed fixes next year under HDB's Home Improvement Programme (HIP) for ageing flats, some of my neighbours in two nearby blocks might be left behind.

We - all 29 blocks in this historic neighbourhood - were given a choice in November on whether to support the HIP upgrades, which include repairing structural cracks and leaks in this over-70-year-old grand dame of an estate.

But two blocks, 35 Lim Liak Street and 34 Kim Cheng Street, fell short of the 75 per cent threshold required to proceed with a project that comes around only twice over a block's 99-year lease.

Block 35 has just 15 households. Eleven voted yes. Four did not vote. It missed the HIP by one ballot. Block 34 has 24 households. Sixteen supported upgrading, two voted no and six were missing in action. Just two more votes would have carried it.

This isn't the first time Tiong Bahru has struggled to muster consensus. In 2019, HDB conducted a straw poll for these same 29 blocks and, despite months of outreach, 10 of them still could not cross the 75 per cent requirement. The works were shelved.