“They are deserving of love, just as I am”: Homeless since age 25, he now serves those who have nowhere to call home

“Your deepest ministry will come out of your deepest hurt—and your deepest life message will come out of your deepest pain.”

This quote by American pastor Rick Warren strikes a deep chord with Tony Tan, who has been homeless for the last 10 years. 

Since December 2022, Tony has been serving with Homeless Hearts of Singapore (HHOS) – an organisation that befriends the homeless and destitute. Week after week, he plies the streets of Chinatown and other neighbourhoods in Singapore with fellow volunteers. They go out bearing food, water and friendship for the homeless and rough sleepers, individuals who sleep on the streets due to lack of adequate shelter. 

“Makan already? Good morning, good evening. What [did] you do today? Long time no see,” Tony would greet them, always with a smile.

Having drifted from place to place since he left home at 24, the 35-year-old said he has met all manner of people. While some have treated him with kindness, others have left him feeling stripped of self-worth and dignity. 

“I will never make them feel like I’m in and they are out,” he said. “They are deserving of love, just as I am, even with my flaws. God does not love our sin but He loves us because He is a loving God.”

Tony (third from right) now joins other befrienders from Homeless Hearts of Singapore to reach out to the homeless. Photo courtesy of HHOS.

“Nowhere was home”

Tony’s struggles began as a child. Growing up, he endured physical and emotional abuse from his parents, he told Salt&Light. In a testimony he shared with Thir.st, he talked about his mental anguish from living at home with his parents. 

As a teenager, Tony yearned every day to leave home but could not because he had no money and no means to get a job. 

When he turned 24, he finally bit the bullet and took off.

That decision marked the start of his vagabond life. He took up bartending at a club in Clarke Quay and stayed at a rental flat that he shared with a couple of men. But disillusionment soon set in when bartending failed provide the achievement he craved and sharing a flat did not bring him friends. He quit in a year.

“It felt like nowhere was home. There was no safety and no security,” he recalled. 

Despite the troubles at home and his mental distress, Tony topped his cohort at school and earned a place at the university. He enrolled for university mainly to live in the dormitory but skipped classes. His professor, aware of Tony’s ongoing treatment for mental health believed he needed professional help. This prompted him to send Tony to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), where he was eventually warded. 

Tony hit rock bottom then. At IMH, he chanced upon a Bible and read Paul’s letter to Timothy: “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.” 2 Timothy 4:18

“I wanted this Lord to save me from evil attacks,” Tony told Salt&Light. “I felt I was under attack from parents, from lecturers, from roommates, from colleagues. This hope was the only thing that enables me to sleep at night.”

After a few months in IMH, Tony was discharged into a step-down facility, a transitional place to help IMH patients reintegrate into community. But he fled after a few months because of poor conditions. 

Homeless again, Tony stuffed his life and belongings into a big bag and carried it everywhere – sleeping in neighbourhood parks, on benches at the university, in the school canteen. 

Over the next few years, he took up odd jobs to stay afloat. 

Desperate to get away from his family, Tony took a bus every weekend to Kuala Lumpur, staying at a backpacker hostel for S$7 a night. Once, after Tony missed the bus at pit stop, he slept at the rest stop to wait for the next bus . The shop owner kicked him out.

“He seemed very disgusted with me, very irritated,” Tony reflected. “I felt I had no dignity.”

His self-esteem took a nosedive.

That incident would shape how Tony treated the homeless when he started volunteering with HHOS.

“I make sure they never feel that way,” he stated. “For me, they are always my friends.”

One of his makeshift refuges during the season of wandering was the playground of Fairfield Methodist Church in Chinatown.

“You are outstanding”

One morning, after a night sleeping at the church playground, a man from the church approached him. Disheveled in a wrinkled shirt and pants that he slept in, $1 rubber flip flops and long unkempt hair, Tony braced himself to be told off and kicked out.

Instead, the man invited Tony to a service and lunch. Drawn by the promise of free food, Tony readily accepted the invitation. 

“I believe you are outstanding,” a Pastor told Tony. That was a turning point for the then unkempt young man living on the streets. Photo by Peck Sim.

After the sermon, the Pastor prayed for Tony and told him in Mandarin: “I believe you are outstanding.”

It was the first time Tony ever heard anyone say anything nice to him.

It was a turning point for the homeless young man.

Through a series of encounters like this, Tony met Jesus Christ and decided to follow Him.

Someone brought him to St Andrew’s Cathedral in 2021, where Tony got baptised and plugged into a cell group, which remains his spiritual family.

But he found himself drawn to the homeless like himself. After reading an article on Channel News Asia, Tony found HHOS and started volunteering with the organisation as a befriender.

These days, Tony knows he has a Father in heaven, a Father who is King. “I want the homeless to know they are also princes and princesses.”

Who are the homeless?

Through almost 5oo requests for help from social workers and individuals 1 January 2023-30 September 2024, HHOS has compiled data offering insights into homelessness in Singapore. 

The data was compiled through its #CityofRefuge app, a web-based app using real-time database to coordinate responses of ongoing needs of the homeless in the community. 

1.     Many homeless are below 25 years old 

Like Tony, many homeless are between 18 to 35 years old, and families with babies and/or young children, some with special needs. In 2023 alone, about 20% of the homeless were below 25 years old and 12% were families with babies and/or young children. 

Those under 25 are especially vulnerable to exploitation and crime, cautioned Abraham Yeo, co-founder of HHOS. Many are “aged out” of support systems and find themselves in precarious situations without family support or relationships, he said. 

2.    Broken family relations is the leading cause 

Family conflict, not finances, is the key driver of homelessness across all age groups. Familial breakdowns – conflicts, abuse, estrangement, lack of willing family support – trigger a cycle of worsening mental and social challenges that push people out of their homes and support networks, Abraham shared.

“People don’t become homeless (initially) because they run out of resources, but because they run out of relationships,” he noted. 

3.    Escalating rents are pricing people out of homes 

Although family-related issues are the most significant contributors to homelessness, escalating rents are pricing many out of stable homes. More than 40% of those who sought help were employed full time but could not afford open-market rentals.

Rentals of two-room HDB flats have jumped more than 70% since the first quarter of 2022 to about S$2,400 in the second quarter of 2024, according to data from the Housing Development Board. Meanwhile, the median income of professionals, managers, executives, and technicians in Singapore facing homelessness (PMET) have hovered around S$2,400 during the same period, data from the Ministry of Manpower showed. Three- and five-room HDB flat rentals have escalated more than 40% over the same period to S$2,800 and S$3,400 respectively. 

One of the ways to help those at risk is to sign up with HHOS as a befriender of the homeless. Tony (second from left) joins the volunteers and homeless friends at a housewarming party. Photo by HHOS.

How can we help?

For those at risk, especially those below 25 years old and families with young children, HHOS suggests five ways to help:

1. Sign up with The Last Resort

Be part of their Families for Families hosting network to provide safe, short-term homestays for homeless youths and young families while social workers work with HHOS and other partners to secure longer-term accommodation. Kenneth Thong and his wife Adeline of The Last Resort will share insights and experiences of their hosting journey. Sign up at hello@thelastresort.life

2. Start a Safe Sound Sleeping Place (S3P) night shelter for the homeless 

If you are a church, contact Bless Community Services to get started. 

You may also sign up with Partners Engaging and Empowering Rough Sleepers (PEERS) Network by the Ministry of Social and Family Development to find out more. PEERS Network partners engage and work with rough sleepers to address underlying social issues with the goal of moving them towards stable long-term housing. 

Contact Bless Community Services at tel: 6288 9377 and the PEERS Network office at msf_peersoffice@msf.gov.sg 

3. Volunteer as a befriender with HHOS

You will support and liaise with homestay hosts, the person under shelter, social workers, and non-governmental organisations that support the homeless.

4. Provide basic financial support as a sponsor with HHOS

Your giving will also go to subsidising private psychiatric care for those requiring mental counselling. 

5. Sign up through HHOS to support host families

Your support includes providing rent subsidies and required support upon recommendations from social workers.

Sign up with hello@homeless.sg

HHOS is holding an advocacy and awareness gathering on 4 October at Yio Chu Kang Chapel with the homeless and their befrienders and partners. Sign up here.

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The post “They are deserving of love, just as I am”: Homeless since age 25, he now serves those who have nowhere to call home appeared first on Salt&Light.