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The unit was full of clutter and caught fire. The sisters slept downstairs in the HDB flat for three months.
60-year-old sister (left) and 65-year-old sister. (Photo by Pan Fengyuan)
The unit was filled with junk and there was no room for them to live. Two sisters in their sixties slept downstairs in the HDB flat for three months and were even forced to move because the "garbage house" caught fire.
The Zheng sisters, aged 65 and 60, live in a rental HDB unit at Hougang Avenue 3. However, the hoardings in the unit are increasing day by day, affecting their lives. A volunteer organization rushed to clean up for them before the Chinese New Year. A reporter from Shin Min Daily News followed the team to the scene on Sunday (January 19) morning.
About 30 volunteers started work at 9 a.m., moving bags of items from the unit downstairs for sorting, and cleaning the sisters' homes. The cleanup took about two hours.
The garbage chute was overcrowded and could not be closed, causing pests and rats to enter the house
Shen Longtuan, the founder of the charity organization "Warmth in the World" of Ang Mo Kio Secondary School Social Action Co., Ltd., revealed in an interview that this was the second time their organization had assisted in cleaning up the sisters' homes. The first time the situation was even more serious, with items in the unit piled to the ceiling, making it like a "garbage house."
He said that the volunteer team had known the two sisters two or three years ago and had been paying attention to them ever since.
Further reading
Cockroaches crawled upstairs, neighbors smelled the stench and discovered a rotting corpse in the garbage room
The problem of hoarding has not improved and the trend of younger people is emerging
“The volunteers would go out on Tuesday nights to visit areas around Serangoon, Hougang, Sengkang and Ang Mo Kio. When we met them in 2023, the sisters were sleeping downstairs in their HDB flat.”
He later discovered that the sisters' unit was filled with a lot of items, making it uninhabitable, and the two slept downstairs for about three months. Shen Longtuan and volunteers decided to take action, and when they went to clean up, they even found that the garbage chute in the unit was overflowing and could not be closed, and many pests and rats ran into the house.
A neighbor who did not want to be named also told reporters that the sisters originally lived in a unit on the fourth floor. After a fire broke out four or five years ago, they moved to the third floor, but the unit became a "garbage house" and they had to sleep downstairs. Now they live in a unit on the eighth floor, which is also full of miscellaneous items. The neighbor also said that he was very happy that volunteers came to help clean up again to avoid the worry of fire.
The unit was full of clutter and caught fire. The sisters slept downstairs in the HDB flat for three months.
60-year-old sister (left) and 65-year-old sister. (Photo by Pan Fengyuan)
The unit was filled with junk and there was no room for them to live. Two sisters in their sixties slept downstairs in the HDB flat for three months and were even forced to move because the "garbage house" caught fire.The Zheng sisters, aged 65 and 60, live in a rental HDB unit at Hougang Avenue 3. However, the hoardings in the unit are increasing day by day, affecting their lives. A volunteer organization rushed to clean up for them before the Chinese New Year. A reporter from Shin Min Daily News followed the team to the scene on Sunday (January 19) morning.
About 30 volunteers started work at 9 a.m., moving bags of items from the unit downstairs for sorting, and cleaning the sisters' homes. The cleanup took about two hours.
The garbage chute was overcrowded and could not be closed, causing pests and rats to enter the house
Shen Longtuan, the founder of the charity organization "Warmth in the World" of Ang Mo Kio Secondary School Social Action Co., Ltd., revealed in an interview that this was the second time their organization had assisted in cleaning up the sisters' homes. The first time the situation was even more serious, with items in the unit piled to the ceiling, making it like a "garbage house."
He said that the volunteer team had known the two sisters two or three years ago and had been paying attention to them ever since.
Further reading
Cockroaches crawled upstairs, neighbors smelled the stench and discovered a rotting corpse in the garbage roomThe problem of hoarding has not improved and the trend of younger people is emerging
“The volunteers would go out on Tuesday nights to visit areas around Serangoon, Hougang, Sengkang and Ang Mo Kio. When we met them in 2023, the sisters were sleeping downstairs in their HDB flat.”
He later discovered that the sisters' unit was filled with a lot of items, making it uninhabitable, and the two slept downstairs for about three months. Shen Longtuan and volunteers decided to take action, and when they went to clean up, they even found that the garbage chute in the unit was overflowing and could not be closed, and many pests and rats ran into the house.
A neighbor who did not want to be named also told reporters that the sisters originally lived in a unit on the fourth floor. After a fire broke out four or five years ago, they moved to the third floor, but the unit became a "garbage house" and they had to sleep downstairs. Now they live in a unit on the eighth floor, which is also full of miscellaneous items. The neighbor also said that he was very happy that volunteers came to help clean up again to avoid the worry of fire.
