An elderly man's rental flat in Singapore was so cramped and dirty that he resorted to sleeping outside on some cardboard.

Couldn't sell anything due to Covid-19

Local welfare organisation, Keeping Hope Alive, documented the state of the elderly man's house, identified by Lianhe Wanbao to be that of 81-year-old Chen Yongfa.

According to Chinese media, Chen has been living alone at the flat located at Block 64 Lorong 5 Toa Payoh for the past four years.

A rag-and-bone man, Chen used to ride his bicycle around the estate to pick up scraps, spare parts and discarded items to resell for a living.

That is, until the Covid-19 pandemic struck and he was unable to sell any of the items he had collected.

Chen told Wanbao that it was not his intention to hoard, but the junk ended up accumulating in his one-room flat and Chen was too old to tidy and clean them up.

This resulted in some rather horrifying conditions in the flat.

Chen subsequently took to sleeping on the corridor outside his ground-floor unit on several sheets of cardboard.

Filled with trash

Keeping Hope Alive's founder Fion Phua told The New Paper that she had first found out about Chen's situation two weeks ago.

Phua and other volunteers initially found it odd that the man was sleeping rough, wearing dirty clothes and walking around barefoot.

Upon discovering the situation inside Chen's flat, Phua rallied 35 volunteers who, in shifts of five due to safe distancing measures, proceeded to clear and clean the flat of its filth and junk.

From 8am to 3pm on Sep. 6, the volunteers toiled away.

The inside of the flat was supposedly so cramped that volunteers could only enter through the back door.

Videos by Keeping Hope Alive showed the floor of the flat almost completely covered in trash and junk, with the walls peeling and crawling with cockroaches.

Volunteers had to be decked out in personal protective gear (PPE) from top to toe.

The smell inside the flat was also so pungent, that volunteers had to apply medicinal ointment.

Severe rat infestation

Not only was the flat infested with cockroaches, there was a major rat problem as well.

One video showed one of the rather large critters attempting to escape into a heap of junk.

The issue was so severe, that a total of 12 rats were found on the premises.

Most of Chen's possessions were then brought outside to the grass patch.

Meanwhile, all the trash were collected in 30 trash bags and subsequently thrown away.

Received new furniture

After the clutter was cleared, Keeping Hope Alive even procured a new bed for Chen. His flat would also be receiving a new coat of paint, reported TNP.

One of the organisation's posts stated that he would get new pillows, blankets, a fan, tables and chairs too.

Chen told Wanbao that he could finally sleep comfortably in a bed, "and not in the company of rats and cockroaches".

Phua sympathised with elderly like Chen who had been impacted by the pandemic.

The caption in one of the Facebook posts stated: "Ground floor every day many people pass by his unit ... for so many years no one even bother or wonder where the smell and little crawling came from this unit .. saw him sleep outside..."

It added that Singaporeans should help each other, and quipped "heartland, not heartless".

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Top photo from Keeping Hope Alive / FB