In the Spotlight: Once bitten, twice shy homeless man chose not to get rental flat

SINGAPORE — For the last four months, odd-job worker Chua Teo Aik, 64, has been wandering the streets by day. He sleeps by the waterfront in the Marina Bay area at night.

Mr Chua chose not to come under the Government’s Joint Singles Rental Scheme after a bad experience with his first roommate, who was trying all means and ways to kick him out of the house. He is one of at least three “regulars” TODAY found in the vicinity of the Esplanade in Marina Bay.

These days, Mr Chua can usually be spotted wheeling a pink, cabin-sized piece of luggage around Singapore’s city centre. The luggage contains all his worldly possessions: a jacket, some oranges, three-in-one instant coffee sachets, neatly filed photographs of himself, some old letters, and his passport.

During the day, he goes in search of shopping malls’ childcare corners, which come with free hot water dispensers, so that he can make his coffee and fill up his water bottle. Then, he loiters about, or tries to find odd jobs to earn some money.

On occasional “laundry days”, Mr Chua would head to Suntec City or the Esplanade, where he would wipe himself down with a damp shirt at the basin of a toilet. He would then air his wet clothes on a stone slab at the Esplanade Park, guarding them for as long as they take to dry.

Come nightfall, he finds a breezy spot around the Marina Bay area to sleep.

“I don’t consider myself to have problems with money. I have something to eat, I have something to wear,” Mr Chua told TODAY. “I have no choice but to be happy like that. My character is that I don’t worry a lot.”

Although he has three children from his first marriage, Mr Chua is estranged from his family, including his 10 siblings.

When Mr Chua’s first marriage ended some thirty years ago, he gave up ownership of his flat under the Housing and Development Board (HDB) and custody of his three children to start a new life in a rented condominium unit.

He worked various jobs over the years as a plumber, cleaner and shipyard worker, but his income could not sustain the rising rental, and he soon moved into a housing unit under the public rental scheme.

However, that did not last long. Mr Chua moved out after his roommate accused him of trying to murder him and complained to the police.

Six years ago, Mr Chua married his second wife, and they lived in a rented condominium unit. Just as he thought things were starting to look up again, his wife disappeared. At a loss, he decided to quit his job and go in search of his wife in her hometown in China, but to no avail.

He returned to Singapore in June, and has been living on the streets since.

When asked if he planned to seek help to get a job or housing, Mr Chua said that his circumstance is “decided by fate”.

“Whatever comes, comes. What has passed, has passed... When I die, my eyes would be closed. I don’t know where my body would go,” he added.

ALSO PART OF OUR  SPOTLIGHT ON HOMELESSNESS:

- Chin Chin Eating House  dishwasher Pang Jee Tang who sleeps between two flower pots every night

-  'McRefugee' Raymond Tan, a security guard who is renting out his two-room flat for extra income