Welcome!

Hello! We are a team of ordinary volunteers who hope to inspire and start movements of fellow Singaporeans to start their own small homeless outreach groups likewise. Just two or three, can already, who will take time to see – and stop for the one in need. Since 2019, HHOS has been a partner of MSF’s Partners Engaging and Empowering Rough Sleepers (PEERS) network.

HHOS is a secular homeless / rough-sleeping befriending group based on Christian values (as the co-founders are Christians). But it’s open to all – regardless of race, language or religion. So we hope to help them in whatever ways possible, whether advocating for them, or befriending, or ministering to them – both to the homeless and those who have houses but are homeless in heart.

Thus, our team takes a relational approach in helping the homeless, and help them find and get to the relevant social services. We also enjoy partnering with fellow like-minded and like-hearted community partners who care for our homeless friends too. Stop for the ONE in need – that’s our motto and modus operandi!

If you wish to volunteer, please click here to sign up, or if you wish to donate, please click here. Thank you and God bless!

Our Stories So Far

2017

2018

2019

2020: Building a City of Refuge in the COVID-19 Pandemic

When COVID-19 hit Singapore, it revealed inadequacies in Singapore’s social support systems. Fortunately, the MSF PEERS Network had been started the year before, so HHOS and fellow PEERS + other community partners jumped into action to help shelter, equip, and mobilise the community to open their spaces to help host homeless people both from Singapore and other countries. We helped sound a public call for more community groups, especially the religious ones, to open up their spaces to help host the homeless during this period.

Awards

2021: Building a City of Refuge: A Sustainable Whole-Of-Society Approach

While HHOS was quieter this year in terms of publicity, we still had a lot of work to do. We realised that homeless families were one of the most vulnerable groups of people, with serious ramifications for their children. After witnessing a homeless family break up under the stress of homelessness and financial strain, we knew we had to step up in terms of providing greater support to homeless families. But in the same year, we also saw how the cost of renting flats on the open-market was soaring month after month, non-stop. That, combined with the shortage of rental flats and the backlog of shelters being full, and religious groups returning their spaces back to their normal services, would spell trouble for those struggling with housing instability. Furthermore, if local Singaporeans were facing these kind of crises, what about stateless people / vulnerable transnational families?

So we sounded out a new public call in December for more families to consider opening up their homes (with guidance from Open Home Network) to host their fellow families in need. A couple volunteering with HHOS also took in a terminally-ill friend of theirs who was both homeless and stateless, so that he could spend his last moments in the warmth of their home instead of a cold hospital ward.

Media Mentions

Two of our youth volunteers also presented their FYP theses this year on how the homeless handled the COVID-19 lockdown, and also how homeless youths handled their situations.

Events / Talks

2022

Media Mentions / Interviews

Events / Talks

2023

Media Mentions / Interviews

Events / Talks