Ms Vanessa Ho, director of sex workers' rights group Project X, believes increased police raids on unlicensed brothels in Geylang could have resulted in businesses moving to public housing. "We know a handful of sex workers who work out of HDB flats, and I estimate that there must be hundreds of such brothels," she said.

Enforcement action since January shows at least 82 women have been arrested for suspected involvement in vice activities within residential areas and units.

I am indeed impressed with the inspired story of Pamela, a Singapore woman who turns to prostitution after getting $500k in debt and ends up marrying her client. Her experience was horrible and she felt humiliated while prostituting herself. However, she had continued as she wanted to get out of debt. There is even one time where she ended up with gonorrhea that is a sexually transmitted infection. Eventually, she got married to her husband when she was pregnant with their first child. But she is now still in debt of over $400,000.

In the alleys between Geylang Lorong 16 and 12, the throngs of women who used to line the streets to tout their game have long gone, with ever increasing police raids and patrols putting a dampener on what once was a vibrant red light district. Prostitution is legal in Singapore, but it is an offence to solicit in public.

A unit in a Housing & Development Board estate in Jurong West Central is under suspicion for allegedly being the venue of an illegal prostitution den housing 5 women from the People's Republic of China (PRC). According to Chinese dailies, residents staying around the unit have lodged a complaint to the authorities.

As there are so many single Singaporean women these days, the unlikely business of being a male social escort has suddenly become a thriving trade.