Officers from new Community Relations Unit can declutter homes of hoarders

The new Community Relations Unit (CRU) will have powers to enter homes and forcibly declutter them in cases of severe hoarding, Senior Minister of State for National Development Sim Ann said in Parliament.

- Syarafana Shafeeq

The CRU, which will be formed after changes to the Community Disputes Resolution Act were passed on Nov 12, will focus on tackling two types of community disputes - cases involving hoarding and severe noise.

Ms Sim said the bulk of the cases the CRU will deal with will be noise-related, since the volume of severe hoarding cases is not high.

That said, hoarding is an issue that poses public health and safety risks, she added.

In severe hoarding cases, the home may be infested with pests from rotting food, which could affect neighbours. Clutter is also a potentially fatal fire hazard, she noted.

She pointed out that the director-general for community relations who will head the CRU can apply to the Community Disputes Resolution Tribunals (CDRT) to forcibly declutter a residential unit as a last resort, after efforts from front-line agencies have been exhausted and the hoarder still fails to comply.

If such an order is granted, the CRU's community relations officers will be authorised to enter the unit to remove and dispose of hoarded materials and items.

Other than the hoarding issue, the CRU will also focus on disputes where noise is causing severe suffering to neighbours, said Ms Sim.

Officers will have a range of powers, including to issue direction to compel parties to go for mediation at the Community Mediation Centre. Failing to comply will be an offence.

The officers can also deploy noise sensors to collect evidence on the direction, timing and intensity of the noise nuisance.