Erhm, if you want to camp in East Coast Park (or anywhere on public land in Singapore), you need to apply for a permit and it's only allowed at designated camping grounds. The campers you saw were recreational, and seldom stay for more than one night. On most weekdays you won't see any tents at East Coast.
That's what I thought initially. My curiosity was piqued because they were in a non designated area and I thought it was weird that the police weren't making an effort to get rid of them.
A friend of mine said it was coz they were homeless and the police were aware.
In other countries they'd probably be moved on by police trying to make them some other department's problem. This could be the place where they ended up where they caused the least headache coz they did somewhat blend in.
It wasn't just east coast park either. There were several who slept on benches outside of my HDB in Clementi and Tiong Bahru. They tended to wake up early.
Oh, that's interesting. I had not heard of such cases, nor have I seen them. Do you remember which part of the park this was? I'll keep an eye out next time I am there.
Feel free to walk to Sentosa from HF around midnight. You will find tens of people sleeping around. And yea, they do not have permits of any kind if you'd like to suggest it (neither people sleeping at east coast park have, except people who really do camping there).
Police doesn't care just because Sentosa is pretty much desolated at night, so noone complains or sees them.
There are few other places to mention, way far from HDB/condo settlements in order to maintain a nice picture of homelessness absence.
