Block 704 HDB Jurong West

Shortly after achieving self-governance in 1959, Singapore faced a serious problem of housing shortages; low construction rates and massive damage from World War II further exacerbated the prewar housing shortage. In 1947, the British Housing Committee Report noted Singapore had "one of the world’s worst slums -- 'a disgrace to a civilised community'", and the average person-per-building density was 18.2 by 1947. High-rise buildings were also rare. In 1959, the shortage problem remained. An HDB paper estimated that in 1966, 300,000 people lived in squatter settlements in the suburbs and 250,000 lived in squalid shophouses in the Central Area.[4] In its election campaign in 1959, the People's Action Party (PAP) recognized that housing required urgent attention and pledged to provide low-cost housing for the poor if it was elected. When it won the elections and formed the newly elected government, it took immediate action to solve the housing shortage. The government passed the Housing & Development Act of 1960, which replaced the existing Singapore Improvement Trust with the Housing & Development Board.