Regulations on Hoarding as Fire Hazard in Residential Estates

Mr Don Wee asked the Minister for National Development in view of recent fire incidents occurring in residential estates (a) whether there will be a review of the regulations on hoarding in residential estates; (b) what further measures will be considered by the multi-agency workgroup to prevent such fire incidents from recurring; and (c) whether the Government will move the solution for hoarding issues upstream and, if so, how.

Compulsive hoarding is characterised by the excessive acquisition of items that are of little or no value, and an inability or unwillingness to discard them. While hoarders' homes may be filled from floor to ceiling with what most may deem as "rubbish", they view these items as important and cannot bear to part with them. In the most severe cases, the hoarder may even rough sleep outside their homes as there is hardly any space left inside. Internationally, the Clutter Image Rating Scale (CIRS) is used to measure the extent and severity of hoarding.

The root cause of a hoarder's behaviour is complex. For example, one's hoarding could be a symptom of underlying mental health conditions like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), or developed after trauma or deep grief. Hoarding behaviours could also be exacerbated by social factors, such as disputes with one's family or the stockpiling of collected items at home for one's "karang guni" business. Hoarding strikes people of all ages. While hoarding is more often observed in the elderly, it is a behavioural trait that could have slowly deteriorated throughout adulthood and worsened as one ages.

Hoarding can happen within the confines of one's flat, but can also spill out into common areas such as shared corridors. A hoarded home may be infested with pests from rotting food or pose a fire risk as occupants may be unable to escape in an emergency due to blockages to exit routes from the extreme accumulation of clutter. Hoarding that clutters corridors also obstructs evacuation routes for neighbours in times of fire. The emanating stench may also inconvenience neighbours and be a nuisance by preventing them from enjoying living in their own homes. These public health and safety risks and dis-amenities warrant state intervention for the wellbeing of both the hoarder and the community.

The Government has taken an inter-agency approach to address hoarding because of its complexity and potentially fatal public hazards. The Hoarding Management Core Group (HMCG), led by the Municipal Services Office (MSO), was set up in 2014 to coordinate efforts across agencies and resolve protracted and severe hoarding cases. The HMCG comprises HDB, NEA, NParks (AVS), SCDF, MSF, PA, and AIC.

In the Hoarding Management Framework (HMF), hoarding cases are assessed and prioritised based on whether there is threat to public health and safety. Where risks are identified to the extent that established rules and laws are violated, regulatory agencies will issue orders or take enforcement action on the hoarder or homeowner. For example, NEA may order the owner to remove items contributing to pest infestations in their home, while SCDF may order the owner to cease hoarding flammable items such as fuel. AVS will also act against hoarding of animals within a HDB flat where animal welfare is harmed, or Town Councils may require owners to remove hoarding in the common areas.

The HMCG considers community and social interventions in tandem with enforcement efforts. If the hoarder is suspected to have mental health issues, the hoarder will be referred to the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) and the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for professional assessment and treatment. Agencies work closely with healthcare workers, community partners such as social workers from Family Service Centres, grassroots leaders, volunteers and the hoarders' family members in a concerted effort to resolve hoarding cases. However, even with the involvement of mental health agencies and professionals, deep seated issues may still result in recurrence as behavioural change is unlikely to happen overnight.

Nevertheless, the HMCG has achieved some success, and as of 1H 2022, we have managed to reduce the severity of 210 cases of hoarding and are actively monitoring these cases to prevent recurrence. If your family member is a hoarder, we seek your strong support on agencies' efforts to declutter as family intervention has proven to be a major success factor in hoarding intervention.

Agencies are currently working on another 260 active hoarding cases. These complex cases remain protracted and unresolved because it is difficult to gain hoarders' cooperation to declutter. Frontline officers face real tensions on the ground in balancing between the hoarder's individual right to choose how they want to upkeep their own home and their neighbours' enjoyment of their own residences, especially in cases where the clutter falls short of outright legal violations, or do not meet the threshold for public health and safety risks as determined by SCDF and NEA.

In such cases, officers need to obtain the cooperation of the hoarder to help them declutter. This involves repeated engagements, persuasion, and at times, referrals to social workers and/or mental health professionals. We have encountered cases where hoarders refuse to open their door for inspections or cooperate in decluttering – some may even threaten self-harm at the thought of losing their belongings. Even if their homes were successfully decluttered once, the clutter may recur as habits do not change so quickly.

However, as recent cases have shown, decluttering is needed not just for the community, but to protect the individual's safety, and the HMCG will continue to work hard at this problem. We empathise with neighbours' frustration with the recurrence of inconveniences and dis-amenities, but also seek your understanding that the challenges and complexities in hoarding intervention require persistent efforts sustained over a long period, both on agencies' and the hoarder's part. To this end, agencies are committed to reviewing enforcement levers and acting more decisively on decluttering efforts.

We plan to intensify actions to keep corridors clear for passage. In the coming months, agencies intend to work with TCs to step up enforcement on cluttered corridors. In tandem, MSO will work with the media as well as social and grassroots workers to further spread and reinforce key messages through more Public Education on the dangers of hoarding and cluttered corridors.

We will also continue to tackle known cases of egregious hoarding within flats. We will work with agencies to assess risks posed by the worst hoarding cases. Where orders are issued for public health and safety reasons and hoarders are cooperative, we will proceed to declutter via the community-based approach with the assistance of volunteer groups. However, even in cases where hoarders are unwilling to part with their items, we will act firmly in the interest of public health and safety to intervene. We seek the understanding of the public that we cannot allow decluttering efforts to be blocked by the remonstrations of individuals who may be endangering public health and safety with their actions.

Lastly, the HMCG alone cannot identify all hoarding cases. Residents who come across hoarding behaviour with public health and safety concerns may report such cases through the OneService App, which will then be referred to agencies for further assessment.