Missing Dakota Crescent: How Relocation Impacts The Elderly | Life Uprooted (1/2)

In 2016, residents of the Old Kallang Airport Housing Estate at Dakota Crescent began moving out as the estate - one of Singapore's oldest - was marked for redevelopment. The roughly 400 households of the rental housing estate had been given about two years' notice, and the opportunity to move to brand-new rental flats at a nearby block - 52 Cassia Crescent.

While the modern flats with elderly-friendly universal design features promised seniors a fresh start, for some, the sense of dislocation and unhappiness was tough to deal with. Not only were daily haunts like the market and hawker centre further away now - up to a 30-minute walk for an elderly person with weak legs - the activity centre that was at the heart of residents' social interactions was not moving with them.

From early 2019, CNA Insider tracked how these older residents had fared in the years after being relocated, and looked at the dangers of isolation and disengagement that can result.

0:00 One last look at Dakota Crescent
1:38 The estate where everyone grew up together
5:22 The shock of elderly residents when told they had to move
7:56 Moving a whole village, and the logistics behind it
10:42 Finding their footing after moving to Cassia Crescent
12:40 The real consequences of isolation on physical and mental health
13:52 The loss of familiar faces
14:43 Why Dakota Crescent’s “kampung chief” couldn’t move with the the residents
15:57 New activity centre – and new relationships built from scratch
18:32 Five years on, have residents adapted?

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