KOTA KINABALU: Kitchen assistant Lee Ming Siong has been living off people’s kindness for months now, ever since his salary was slashed in half due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

       The 37-year-old father of three, who is on the verge of being kicked out of their rental home, said with a household income of about RM2,000, it was quite difficult for him to meet their daily living expenses.

       “After paying off loans and car instalments, utility bills and what not, we only have less than RM1,000 for food and other things for our children aged seven, two and three weeks old.

       “I am also ashamed to say that I haven’t been able to pay our RM450 monthly house rent for over a year, but thank God the owner is kind enough to let us stay on till today, or else we will be out in the streets,” Lee said.

       He said he has to plead with the owner to let them stay whenever he comes to collect rent, which he has never been able to pay in full since last year.

       “I give RM100 or RM200 if I can, but most of the time, I just can’t and I am scared that the owner would one day just kick us out,” he said.

       Lee has no choice but to borrow money from friends and relatives whenever he needs to top up a little on the backdated rent, buy fuel for his car, and sometimes even to buy food.

       He said their household expenses increased further following the birth of his son on June 12.

       “Sometimes, I borrow RM5 from a few people just so that I can refuel my car and go to work,” he said, adding that he often doesn’t even have lunch money.

       Lee said over the past year, he said he had used up all the government aid to pay off debts, most of which were accumulated from a few years back due to “stupid” choices.

       “I was so stupid. I was pulled into gambling and from there, I hit rock bottom. That was when I stopped and started focusing on paying back what I owed, and am still paying for it till today,” he admitted.

       He said with the recently announced assistance for families like himself, he could at least pay off a little bit of what he owed others and use another portion for his family’s expenses.

       Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that among others, hardcore poor families would get RM500 in August, RM500 in November and RM300 in December whereas for the B40 households, they would get RM500 in August and RM300 in