This post was originally published as a press release on 11 May 2022.

Securing permanent housing, keeping gainfully employed and improving interpersonal relationships: Having access to safe, secure housing for six months or more enables single mothers and their children to do all the above.

This was the key conclusion from gender-equality organisation AWARE’s Support, Housing and Enablement (S.H.E.) Project, a research-based service that between 2018 and 2021 provided stable and decent housing, alongside transformational support programmes, for low-income single-mother families. AWARE today released the report “Why Stable Housing Matters: Outcomes of the S.H.E. Project for Single-Mother Families”, detailing these families’ experiences as well as recommendations to improve the lot of single mothers in Singapore.

AWARE managed four apartments, a mix of condominiums and public housing, for a total of 18 mothers and 21 children over the duration of the S.H.E. Project. The apartments were sponsored by a donor who had learnt about single parents’ housing challenges from a 2016 AWARE study on the issue. Of the 18 families, AWARE conducted quarterly interviews with the 12 whose stay spanned six months or longer, tracking progress in housing access, employment, family well-being and other areas. These 12 mothers ranged from 18 to 48 years in age. Five were separated, two divorced and five had never been married. Prior to living at the S.H.E. Project, all of them had experienced domestic violence.

Over the course of their time at the S.H.E. Project, 8 out of 12 mothers saw improvements in their employment situations and income, with median monthly income rising from $500 before they entered S.H.E. to $1,150 when the Project concluded. Notably, the security of having a stable residence afforded three mothers the leeway to quit jobs at which they had experienced poor work conditions. Residents also expressed feeling safer and happier, and enjoying better relationships with their families of origin.

“This report tells a hopeful story, one that is particularly timely in the week between Mother’s Day and International Day of Families,” said Corinna Lim, AWARE’s Executive Director. “We know now that stable housing does make a tangible difference to so many other aspects of a family’s life. Yet while we celebrate the progress made by the S.H.E. Project families, we recognise that they—and many other single-parent families across Singapore—continue to face varied obstacles to their security and quality of life.

“For example, the experience of our younger mothers tells us that unwed underage parents are particularly vulnerable, not qualifying for public rental housing due to the minimum age of 21. It’s often assumed that these mothers can stay with family or relatives, but that does not take into account strained relationships or abusive situations.”

Accordingly, the report explored the challenges that the mothers faced in three key areas: housing, divorce and employment. AWARE’s housing-related recommendations for the government included: creating a Housing Development Board (HDB) unit to coordinate services for families transitioning to single-parent households; allowing divorced single parents to receive HDB loans and levy waivers; and taking tense or abusive family relationships into account when assessing applicants’ housing options. AWARE also proposed a government programme that could, like the S.H.E. Project, provide housing and support services for unwed mothers and family violence victims for at least two years.

Of the 12 mothers in the study, six were undergoing legal proceedings for divorce-, custody- or maintenance-related matters, but only two had managed to wrap up their proceedings by the close of the S.H.E. Project. To streamline these gruelling processes, AWARE recommended expanding eligibility criteria for Assistance Scheme for Second-Timers (ASSIST) and Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme (PPHS) to include single parents with interim judgement of divorce, and including Registrar’s Empowerment Clauses in all court orders relating to the sale and transfer of matrimonial assets.

“We were struggling in silence, not being able to submit applications because my matrimonial home was not sold yet,” said Radiah (not her real name), 37, a S.H.E. Project resident. “Delays from my ex-spouse made it even worse. It’s hard enough to adjust to a new life after divorce and single-handedly raise kids. My son begged me to quickly get our own place because having to live in my mother’s home was too stressful. Please do not exclude us from housing schemes. I support the recommendations in the report.”

“Single mothers do get help, but it takes a lot of processes, procedures and paperwork, and it can be tedious and troublesome,” noted Farah (not her real name), 22, another resident. “If another housing and service programme like S.H.E. was established, underage unwed mothers would feel more supported and have time to upgrade themselves, get jobs and care for their children. Usually we have no place to go and no one to turn to.”

“We are so proud to have journeyed with the S.H.E. Project families, who worked diligently on their goals and persevered in the face of hardships—including the Covid-19 pandemic, which threw their already tenuous situations into financial shock,” said Elizabeth Quek, who served as the house mother in charge of the S.H.E. Project apartments. “I was surprised at the sheer strength of their motivation. In my 16 years as a social worker, I have never seen individuals turn their lives around as quickly and consistently as the S.H.E. residents.”

Read “Why Stable Housing Matters” here, and the Executive Summary here.