Reports of poor, elderly citizens living alone in cluttered, bug-ridden homes filled with trash have cropped up time and again. This has only worsened with the onset of the pandemic, with some elderly residents cut off from social interactions with others during the circuit breaker period.

While the underlying factors in these cases include the elderly being physically impaired and having a hoarding mentality, among others, the fact remains that this issue often goes undetected.

Given that homes are fundamentally private spaces one cannot enter without permission from the seniors, many of them often suffer in silence living in unhygienic homes.

Grassroots leaders and community organisations have thus far done a commendable job in attending to the physical needs of such poor, elderly residents through regular food distribution exercises, among other initiatives.

However, I feel that there should be greater collaboration to conduct more frequent checks on these isolated residents and take action when they detect issues with their living conditions.

This could be done by talking to elderly residents and spotting visual cues, while making food deliveries, for example. Often, this responsibility falls on smaller community organisations such as Habitat for Humanity Singapore, whose operations are limited in scale.

As a result, many elderly residents continue to live in uninhabitable conditions. It is imperative that we, as a community, do more to help them live out their last years in dignity.

Samuel Benedict Silveries Mathias