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SINGAPORE: Bernie remembers the year she saw four supermoons in the night sky while rough sleeping on the streets of Singapore.<\/p>\n
Between 2023 and 2024, she had no home to return to. She slept outside, initially at Marina Bay, then settling at a downtown university campus with quieter surroundings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m outside, I really appreciate nature, because that is where you see the beautiful wonders that\u2019s happening,\u201d said the 71-year-old, who wanted to be identified only by her first name.<\/p>\n
Bernie used to have shelter and stability \u2013 a flat she rented with her mother and a job as a secretary \u201cearning big bucks\u201d. By her reckoning, she had a good life.<\/p>\n
That changed when she lost her job in the 2010s. She started working part-time, but eventually, that wasn\u2019t enough to pay the rent.<\/p>\n
When they lost their home, a close relative took in her mother, but Bernie was left on her own due to a family dispute she declined to elaborate on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI left because no one wants to take me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She drifted between budget hotels at first, but once her savings ran low, she turned to the streets for the first time in her late 60s.<\/p>\n
The supermoons were among Bernie\u2019s brighter memories of rough sleeping, along with the times strangers went out of their way to give her food or a blanket, or expressed concern about her.<\/p>\n
Others were less kind. She remembers parents passing by and warning their children: \u201cWhen you grow up, you don\u2019t listen, you got no money, you\u2019re going to sleep in the streets like her.\u201d<\/p>\n
She would wake at 5.30am, wash up in a public toilet and go to her part-time job. She took showers at fitness centres and washed her clothes at a laundromat. She kept what she could fit into two bags she took wherever she went, and stored the rest of her belongings with a friend.<\/p>\n
Mostly, she kept to herself. \u201cPeople have been very disappointing when you ask for help and no help came,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen out of nowhere, Brian and his team came \u2026 They built up a confidence in me that I can open up to this team of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Brian Monteiro is the manager of shelters and programmes at the Catholic Welfare Services\u2019 (CWS). Since 2014, he has led CWS\u2019 night walks to befriend and help those living on the streets.<\/p>\n
When the reticent Bernie first encountered CWS volunteers during one of these night walks in January 2024, she closed herself off: \u201cI just didn\u2019t want to talk to any one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over a month of check-ins, she gradually warmed to them and started to open up about her life. In April 2024, she was persuaded to visit CWS\u2019 Night Cafe at Waterloo Street, which was newly reopened after a lengthy hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
There, in a bright, clean and air-conditioned room, Bernie met other rough sleepers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She joined them at a table with the volunteers, where they dug into packets of freshly cooked donated food.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Tuesdays, they get bento sets courtesy of the Grand Pacific Hotel, and on Wednesdays, patrons enjoy tze char meals prepared by a generous restaurant owner.<\/p>\n
This year, CWS started a third session on Thursdays, with a \u201clong-term goal of operating the cafe every weeknight\u201d, not only to provide meals, but also \u201ccompanionship and a sense of belonging\u201d, the charity said in its annual report.<\/p>\n
As the patrons ate, they opened up about their personal stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n