More elderly choose to sleep on the streets Tue, Nov 15, 2011 | AsiaOne Some elderly people are now spending their nights on the streets instead of under shelter. It was reported in The Straits Times that about 30 elderly people regularly spend their nights at Sago Lane in Chinatown. Stallholders at food centres nearby said that the number of elderly vagrants has doubled in the past six months. According to social workers, many of them do so because they quarrel with roommates over reasons like unhappiness over poor hygiene, noise, and accusations of theft. Some of the elderly initially claimed that they did not have a home to return to, but later admitted to living in rental flats nearby. Some also said they were thrown out by their families. Others said they preferred to sleep outdoors, or that they had no room to sleep in their rental flats because they had filled it with too much junk. The elderly vagrants are mostly men clad in singlets, shorts and slippers who use large pieces of cardboard as makeshift mattresses. Others simply lie on plastic chairs, exposed to the elements. A centre manager at the Chin Swee branch of the Kreta Ayer Senior Activity Centre told The Straits Times that about half of the 1,200 elderly residents in his area are unhappy with their roommates. About 20 per cent of those who encounter such problems then move into the streets or ask for new roommates. The remaining bear with the situation or try to work out their differences. The authorities picked up 339 lone vagrants in 2010, an increase from 217 in 2009. 130 of them were aged 60 and above. Almost 80 per cent of these elderly vagrants were male. Approximately 40 per cent of the 44,000 rental units in Singapore are occupied by at least one person aged 65 and above. Single seniors are required by the Housing Development Board (HDB) to apply for a rental flat in pairs so they can take care of each other and make the best use of space. A HDB spokesman said most tenants get along. Those who cannot find a flatmate are provided with a waiting list of others who are also applying for rental flats. They can then look for and contact potential flatmates themselves.