HOUSING QUALITY AND COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

Abstract

The rapid urbanisation of Singapore is characterised by the mushrooming of new town developments all over the island. Whilst providing for her citizens' physical needs, the Singapore government has not forgotten their social needs as well. Various schemes have been implemented through the Housing and Development Board (HDB) in the designs of the new towns to promote the re-establishment of community spirit. The Main Upgrading Programme (MUP) seeks to rejuvenate the older estates through breaking them down into smaller precincts, and giving them housing quality comparable to the new estates. This will enable residents to develop a sense of identity and belonging to the area. Upgrading alone can only provide the physical setting for community bonding to take place. The Residents' Committee's (RC) role within each housing estate, run by residents' themselves, is to promote the use of these physical settings to knit the community together. It is through these two means that the author hopes to establish the relationship between housing quality, in the form of upgraded flats, and community participation, in the form of participation in the RC and its activities. The finding revealed through this study was that upgrading does affect community participation of the residents' of the study area — Clementi, jointly with other factors. This gives a greater understanding of the effectiveness of the social aspect of the MUP, and enables the authorities to come up with rectifying measures to improve on the current schemes in their drive for greater social cohesion.