'I can't bear to leave'

Henderson Heights rental residents being relocated speak fondly of neighbourhood

- Wong Yang

All her life, 42-year-old Janet Yee has lived in a two-room rental flat on the 15th floor of Block 91 Henderson Road.

The home is filled with family pictures, Buddhist figurines that belonged to her parents, and old furniture such as two cupboards that store the clothes and bedsheets of Ms Yee, her Malaysian husband, and two children, aged five and nine, in their bedroom.

But Ms Yee never intended to live there forever.

"I had always wanted to buy my own flat so that my kids have more certainty and security than I did. When you live in a rental flat, you never know when you might be asked to move," said the senior kitchen leader at a Japanese pizza restaurant.

Her fears came true earlier in 2024 when she was told by the Housing Board that her family had until the end of September 2025 to move out.

Her family is among 675 households living in two-room rental flats at Henderson Heights which comprises Blocks 91, 92 and 93 - that are being relocated.

This is the sixth relocation of rental residents that HDB has done in the last five years. The agency said it is reviewing development plans for the Henderson Heights site.

Many of the residents have lived in the estate, which was built in 1975, for over two decades.

All 20 residents whom The Straits Times spoke to were upset when they first learnt in March that they had to move. They were informed by HDB officers who went door to door.

Many residents spoke fondly of leaving a neighbourhood where they had raised their children and worked to rebuild their lives amid various adversities, including divorces, injuries and illnesses, or brushes with the law.

They also rued the impending loss of the estate's close-knit community, especially the elderly, who thought they would live out their golden years there.