Editing Housing and Development Board (section)

===Background and formation===
By the 1940s and 1950s, Singapore experienced rapid population growth, with the population increasing to 1.7&nbsp;million from 940,700 between 1947 and 1957. The living conditions of people in Singapore worsened, with many people living in informal settlements or cramped [[shophouse]]s.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last1=Lim |first1=William Siew Wai |date=July–August 1984 |title=Public housing and community development in Singapore |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43621881 |journal=Ekistics |volume=51 |issue=307 |pages=319–327 |doi= |jstor=43621881 |access-date=26 May 2021 |archive-date=5 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220405033848/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43621881 |url-status=live }}</ref> Moreover, the [[Singapore Improvement Trust]] (SIT), which was then responsible for public housing in Singapore, faced many problems in providing public housing, with the rents for flats being too low to be financially sustainable but unaffordable for many of the poorer people in Singapore. Delays in approval for new housing developments greatly slowed housing construction by 1958.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Housing Problem |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19580912-1.2.105.1 |work=[[The Straits Times]] |location=Singapore |date=12 September 1958 |access-date=26 May 2021 |via=NewspaperSG |page=8 |archive-date=26 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526030945/https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19580912-1.2.105.1 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the mid-1950s, in light of the findings of the Committee on Local Government, the government initiated efforts to set up a new housing authority in place of the SIT.<ref>{{cite news |title=Govt. acts: SIT's days numbered |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19560612-1.2.62 |work=[[The Straits Times]] |location=Singapore |date=12 June 1956 |access-date=26 May 2021 |via=NewspaperSG |page=4 |archive-date=8 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508033433/https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19560612-1.2.62 |url-status=live }}</ref> These efforts culminated in the Housing and Development Bill, which was read to the [[Legislative Assembly of Singapore|Legislative Assembly]] in 1958 and passed the next year. With the bill's passing, the HDB was formed in February 1960, taking over the SIT's public housing responsibilities.<ref>{{cite news |title=2 new boards take over from the S.I.T |url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19600201-1.2.82 |work=The Straits Times |location=Singapore |date=1 February 1960 |access-date=26 May 2021 |via=NewspaperSG |page=7 |archive-date=8 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508033430/https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19600201-1.2.82 |url-status=live }}</ref>