Preliminary Investigation

We started preliminary door-to-door interviews last week, on the 12th of September, Tuesday afternoon, with the objective of obtaining general findings on the actual living conditions of residents living in 1- or 2-room governmental rental flats. Our trip was also accompanied with a second goal to ascertain the online findings that we found in the previous week, which include four common problems faced by people living in these rental flats: (1) sudden illness and the inability to cope with the huge medical bills, (2) poor/lack of medical knowledge, (3) food insecurity, and (4) loneliness.

In order to gather a large and diverse result, our group decided to split into two teams, with each investigating both the northeast and west side of Singapore. This also helps to prevent the problem of being too overwhelming and intimidating to the residents by visiting as a group. The team investigating the northeast area involve Li Jun, Li Ting and Joo Hwee, while the team investigating the west area include Cindy, Jeong Soo, and Shi Yi.

Our investigation was not carried out without full preparation. Before our actual visit, our team came up with an preliminary interview questionnaire and guide that would aid us in observing certain details in both areas. This helps to ensure consistency in our observations, as well as the conversations or probing questions asked pertaining to certain issues. The kinds of observations that we reminded ourselves to take note about the residents were mainly: (1) living conditions – number of rooms, size of flat, presence of basic furniture, (2) demographics – age, gender, race, as well as (3) surrounding environment – whether most of the household doors were open or close, interaction among the residents along the corridor and void deck, and so on. As for conversational topics, we asked filter questions to confirm their nationality and age, as well as to find out more about their living situation, daily worries and concerns, any existing subsidy or assistance they are receiving, and neighbor relations.

Findings from the Northeast Region

Based on a common agreement to explore the rental flats in the newly developed areas, we headed to the newest part of Punggol. Although the address was listed in the HDB rental flats listing, we were unable to locate the building on the GPS. It turns out that the flat was still under development, evidenced by ongoing constructions around the new area. Thankfully, there were other rental flats located within the area, and we made the prompt decision to head over to the nearby estate, and subsequently to the Seng Kang estate.

(Intended investigating area undergoing construction in Punggol)

(Investigated area in Punggol)

(Our dedicated team member, Li Jun, in action)

According to our findings, there was a stark contrast in the physical appearance of the rental flat blocks and surrounding normal HDB flat blocks in both estates. Another discovery was the differing features of rental flats in Punggol and Seng Kang, even though they were both built around the same time. Interestingly, the ones in Seng Kang seems to be better taken care of than the ones in Punggol, in terms of cleanliness and tidiness of the corridors. Some common observations that we made of the two estates include: (1) closed doors, (2) no interaction between neighbors, (3) many cases of young families with large family size, and (4) little community activities.

(Contrast between the rental flat blocks, indicated in yellow on the left, and normal HDB flat blocks, indicated in green on the right)

(Closed doors)

Findings from the West Region

On the same day, the other team headed over to the Jurong East estate, where two blocks of rental flats could be found. The buildings were made up of 12 floors each, and seemed to be newly built. It was within our expectation to find a considerable amount of senior citizens living in these rental flats. The new discovery was the surprisingly large number of young families also living in these rental flats. According to the conversations, the residents highlighted poor neighbor relations, which were also made apparent by the team’s observation of frequent closed doors, as well as empty corridors and void decks. Raised by all of the interviewees, the highest concern they have in their everyday lives is the need for more financial assistance for varying purposes. These include for the livelihood of the unemployed, children’s school fees, and the repayment of loans/debts.

(Empty void deck)

(Empty corridor)

Although our actual findings did not entirely coincide with the online findings, the main results that we obtained from our preliminary investigation were highly insightful about the real situation. This preliminary investigation served as an important first step for us to better understand the lives of people living in governmental rental flats. With a better context of the situation, our team was able to proceed on to the next step, and settle on a more concrete research approach that is based on dialogic communication with the participants.

#fieldwork #dialogiccommunication #research #doortodoorinterviews