From BBQ pit at East Coast Park to Novena staircase: Why so many men sleeping in public?

“He left his handphone and cigarettes behind. I think he went behind the block to urinate after that. When my friend and I asked whose phone it was, he came back shouting like he wanted to fight.

“They drink there every day from morning till night, always quarrelling and shouting. Can the police please come over and kick them out of this place?”

Meanwhile, Stomper Bruce said he was at East Coast Park at around 7pm on Oct 20, when he saw a man lying across a table at BBQ pit 41E.

“He’d been sleeping there for the last two hours,” Bruce said. “Where are the authorities? Nobody patrolling the area?”

Separately, Stomper Anonymous spotted two men passed out sleeping – one at a staircase on the ground floor of an HDB block and another lying on the floor of a nearby carpark – in Novena on Oct 21, at about 12.08am.

“This is commonly seen in the estate,” the Stomper said. “Some people sleep outside because their rented units are too cramped.”

The sightings have raised questions about whether public areas are being adequately monitored and whether they point at deeper underlying issues.