During this time, the children’s home he came from found a place in an estate to rent – a bed in a room shared with five others, for $150 a month.

Ashley has a part-time job at a lab testing air quality and takes home about $1,500 a month, which goes towards expenses like food, transportation and school fees.

The house currently subsidizes her tuition fees for her part-time degree in applied sciences at a polytechnic. She plans to apply for financial assistance for school fees.

The house also funds most of the rent for her accommodation, and she worries that getting affordable housing will become more difficult after she officially leaves home at age 21.

For youth working full-time at the point of discharge, casework will be provided for one year, MSF said. They will not be eligible for financial assistance.

In 2021, Melrose Home started Thrive21(+) to help youth ages 17 and older deal with the challenges that come with moving. So far, nine residents have benefited.

The program consists of a year of training while young people are at home, teaching them essential skills for self-reliance, from financial management to housekeeping, and two years of ongoing support, including finding work, after leaving home.

Ms Soh Ying Si, a home-based social worker, said the first batch of the program rented a Housing Board flat and they lived together so it would be “less scary for them”. The lease will end in June 2025.

The house covers rental fees for them while collecting payments for smaller expenses such as utilities and Wi-Fi, Ms Soh added.

And if they couldn’t pay their quota for a particular month, Ms Soh said they had to learn to speak up for themselves and explain why they couldn’t pay on time.

“They had that fear, that weird feeling of living outside with no one to turn to at all times,” she said. At first, the young people returned to the Melrose Home to have dinner together almost every day.

The program is meant to bridge the gap between care and independence, she said, adding that insufficient support can undermine the years of intervention that children’s homes provide.

Another aftercare support initiative by social services agency Trybe, which runs the Singapore Boys’ Hostel, expanded in 2022 to take in youngsters from other children’s homes, offering them help and guidance. The Growing Resilient Youth in Transition program, started in 2015, was initially only for boarding school boys.

Young people who need help can enroll in the program on their own or other homes can refer them at least three months before they are discharged. A social worker is assigned to follow them for 12 to 15 months after that, said Ms Helga Foo, a Trybe social worker.

The social worker will befriend them, mentor them and connect them with community resources, she said.