“This Place is Heaven”

Joseph Lazar (centre) with his social worker Koh Peck Sian (left), and Lilian Ong, Director of Social Work at New Hope Community Services. Joseph still visits New Hope @ Margaret Drive, his interim home for two years after experiencing a series of family and health challenges.

Sometime in March 2023, at midnight amidst heavy rain, Joseph Lazar landed at Changi Airport with a medical condition, dwindling savings and nowhere to go. He was 74. Every hotel he called was either closed or too expensive. He had not planned to be homeless.

Two years later, Joseph has a favourite spot. It is the dining table at New Hope @ Margaret Drive (New Hope @ MD), which was home from January 2024 to December 2025. “I sit there like a lawyer and people come to me.” They come with disputes, worries or problems. He listens and he helps.

The road to that table was long. After a sudden divorce which upended not just his marriage but also his living arrangements, Joseph spent years navigating Singapore’s hotels, paying thousands a month for rooms that offered shelter but little else. When hotel stays became out of reach, he flew to Australia to stay near his children. A health condition brought him back to Singapore, and the cycle repeated.

With chronic medical issues like diabetes and sleep apnea, Joseph needed a suitable place to lay his head.

New Hope @ MD is run by New Hope Community Services, with support from the Tote Board Social Service Fund (TBSSF).

Joseph enjoyed spending time with fellow residents at New Hope @ Margaret Drive, where conversations and friendships gave him a greater sense of belonging.

In partnership with the National Council of Social Service, the TBSSF supports essential social services for vulnerable individuals and families across Singapore.

New Hope @ MD was founded on a simple conviction: make the barriers to getting help as low as possible, so that no one is turned away when they need it most. Beyond providing a roof, the shelter offers residents a full continuum of care, from healthcare coordination and employment support to the kind of steady human presence that helps people in distress and despair.

It was the first shelter Joseph ever entered. “After going through all the struggles I had, this was heaven for me,” he says.

Senior social worker Koh Peck Sian became central to his journey from August 2024. She coordinated his medical appointments, supported his recovery after surgery, and worked through his HDB application process, including securing a medical memo that justified his need for a single-occupancy room due to his CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine. “Having a home is so important,” she says. “I cannot imagine not being able to go back to a home after work.”

However, Peck Sian knew that practical support alone was not enough. She encouraged Joseph to participate in communal life, so he could build a social network that would sustain him long after he leaves the shelter. That network became meaningful in ways nobody quite planned for. Joseph mediated disputes between residents. He identified problems around the shelter and proposed practical fixes, ultimately seeing them implemented.

Within a year, with Peck Sian’s help, Joseph moved into a rental flat unit under HDB’s Single Room Shared Facilities scheme. Like Joseph, 67% of New Hope @ MD residents achieved stable housing within a year in FY2025, up from 56% the year before, reflecting the programme’s deepening ability to journey with each resident.

For Lilian Ong, Director of Social Work at New Hope, the numbers point to something larger. “It is really about that sense of connectedness and belonging,” she says. “The ability to contribute is equally important.” With Tote Board’s support, more people like Joseph now have the chance to find their footing and, in time, help others find theirs.

Joseph is 76 now, managing his health and still visiting New Hope @ MD regularly. Two former shelter residents live near him at his new rental flat. When they quarrel, they still call on him to help sort things out.

Looking back, Joseph is grateful. “If I didn’t have this place, I don’t know where I would have gone.”