HLF2026 Menu
HLF2026 Main Forum Agenda
21 Oct 2026
10am – 5pm
Singapore Management University (SMU) Yong Pung How School of Law
DISCOVERY SESSIONS
Discovery Sessions
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Overview:
Featuring the 11 projects awarded with the MSF PATH Fund (Partnership to Tackle Homelessness) in Window 1, divided into 3 themes:
- Tailored Outreach and Support
- Building Change from Within
- Sustaining Housing Stability
Lunch & Networking
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Lunch is provided.
MAIN FORUM
Opening Address
2:00 PM – 2:15 PM
Gasper Tan
CEO
New Hope Community Services
[Bio to be added]
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KEYNOTE
Keynote Speech
2:15 PM – 2:45 PM
Kenneth has spent nearly 20 years learning about homelessness the less common way: by opening his home. With his wife, he co-founded The Last Resort, a community for young people who had nowhere safe to go. It was never meant to be a model, just safe families for those who needed one. Before he opened his home to others, he knew a little of this himself. At 15, he spent weeks staying with friends, still going to school, still holding the keys to a family home that wasn't somewhere he could stay. He doesn't consider himself an expert, just someone who spends a lot of time noticing, asking questions, and chasing rabbit holes bigger than he can organise.
Synopsis:
Kenneth's speech follows two young men his family took in over the years. Matthew grew up fully Singaporean, except on paper: when his mother, a foreign national, was jailed and deported, an expired student pass cost him his home and safety net, and eventually four years of silence after he was trafficked into a scam centre. Aloysius was pushed out of his own home by police over domestic violence at nineteen, and over three years of dishes, dinners, and slow trust, became family without either side saying the word.
Kenneth's point cuts against how services define care. Case plans and mandates ask what a person needs. They rarely ask who that person is to us. He argues real community happens in the space forms can't reach, where someone stops being a case and becomes someone who matters to you.
The speech ends without resolving Matthew's story, and Kenneth sits in that discomfort rather than smoothing it over.
Sharing by Facilitators
2:45 PM – 3:15 PM
Synopsis:
Facilitators from each of the 3 Discovery Sessions themes come together to share what surfaced during their sessions — the ground realities, tensions, and possibilities that emerged from the morning's conversations. This segment distills the morning's Discovery Sessions into key takeaways ahead of the panel discussion that follows.
Tailored Outreach and Support
Brian Monteiro PBM has been with Catholic Welfare Services for almost twenty years. Over the last twelve years, his focus has been primarily on Rough Sleepers — befriending them on the streets, journeying with them toward the hope of attaining permanent housing, and continuing the friendship and staying in touch thereafter. Through his befriending work, Brian has learnt many life lessons, the greatest being Dignity and Respect. From this friendship, several initiatives were born, such as the S3Ps, which offer Rough Sleepers a chance to sleep Safely and Soundly for the night; the Night Café, a space for more meaningful engagement and strong community support; and the LunchTime ladle, which reaches out to lonely elderlies and Rough Sleepers, giving them the opportunity to experience fine dining, and most recently, the Upper Room, a group sharing initiative for Rough Sleepers who have attained permanent housing or shelter to have a change of mindset and maintain their current dignified lifestyle.
Building Change from Within
Pastor Rick Toh is the CEO of Bless Community Services (BCS) and the Lead Pastor of Yio Chu Kang Chapel (YCKC). Since 2019, BCS has operated temporary night shelters, known as Safe Sound Sleeping Places (S3Ps), in partnership with various churches to provide shelter and support for homeless individuals and rough sleepers. S3P@YCKC was the first S3P operated by BCS, and has since served as a model for BCS's ongoing work in providing safe accommodation and well being support for those experiencing homelessness. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to Singapore's COVID-19 response, particularly in mobilising and coaching religious organisations to establish S3Ps to provide shelter for homeless individuals during the pandemic, Pastor Rick was awarded the Public Service Medal (COVID-19) in 2023.
Sustaining Housing Stability
Martina Rehnu Ambrose
Deputy Director, Client Services & Care
New Hope Community Services
FACILITATOR
Martina Rehnu Ambrose is Deputy Director of Client Services and Care at New Hope Community Services, overseeing services across transitional shelters and social housing. A social worker by training, she has extensive experience working with individuals experiencing homelessness and housing instability, alongside leading the development and implementation of new service models. Her work spans direct practice, programme development, operations, stakeholder collaboration and service innovation. Martina is particularly interested in strengthening housing sustainability through preventive, risk-informed and community-based approaches. At the HLF Forum, she will share insights from the PATH Fund project, From Tenancy to Housing Sustainability: A Risk-Informed Community Work Approach to Social Housing.
Panel Discussion with Facilitators
3:15 PM – 4:15 PM
PANEL DISCUSSION
Synopsis:
Lilian Ong, Senior Director, Service & Transformation at New Hope Community Services, moderates this conversation with facilitators from all 3 Discovery Session themes — Brian Monteiro PBM (Catholic Welfare Services), Pastor Rick Toh (Bless Community Services), and Martina Rehnu Ambrose (New Hope Community Services) — as they dig deeper into the questions and ideas surfaced during the morning's sessions. They're joined by Chelsea Wong (MSF), who shares how government and community can continue strengthening their partnership going forward. Expect a candid conversation on what it takes to move from tailored outreach, to change from within, to lasting housing stability — and how these threads weave together into a fuller picture of Community Based Solutioning.
Lilian Ong is the Senior Director, Services & Transformation at New Hope Community Services, where she leads efforts to strengthen services, professional practice and organisational transformation.
She is passionate about supporting individuals experiencing homelessness and housing vulnerability, while also developing people, teams and systems to serve with greater compassion, clarity and impact.
Lilian believes meaningful change happens when good practice, strong relationships and thoughtful leadership come together. At the heart of her work is a commitment to dignity, hope and helping both clients and staff grow towards their fullest potential.
Chelsea Wong
Senior Deputy Director, Residential Support and Licensing Division
Ministry of Social and Family Development
PANELIST
Chelsea Wong is the Senior Deputy Director of the Residential Support and Licensing Division at the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). Her experience spans homelessness policy and operations, including the approach to supporting rough sleepers, homeless persons and other vulnerable groups. She works closely with government agencies and community partners through the Partners Engaging and Empowering Rough Sleepers (PEERS) Network to coordinate outreach, assessment, shelter placements, social support and community reintegration for persons experiencing homelessness.
Closing Speech by Guest of Honour
4:15 PM – 4:45 PM
Eric Chua
Senior Parliamentary Secretary,
Ministry of Social and Family Development & Ministry of Law
GUEST OF HONOUR
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Closing and Feedback
4:45 PM – 5:00 PM
