Residents in Wuhan set up elevators through self-raised funds

Residents of a community in Wuhan raised 1.17 million yuan and set up 3 elevators to make it more convenient for the elderly. After the installation of elevators, housing prices have risen from 9,000 yuan per square meter to 15,000 yuan per square meter.

Because the community was built about 20 years ago, the 8-floor residential buildings were all not equipped with elevators. Now over 60 percent of the residents living in the building are seniors aged above 60. Without elevators, many of the residents have to stay inside the apartment and rarely come out and are otherwise forced to sell their houses.

It took a long time and great effort to arrive to an agreement since people living in lower floors were unwilling to chip in. Then a plan was worked out under which according to residents’ specific floor, each household would be asked to give different amounts of money, the higher floors were expected to give more than the lower floors. Two thirds of the residents agreed to the plan.

It took another year and half to run examinations and finish the approval processes, and construction started in November 2015. The elevators in the building are equipped with a card-swipe system according to which residents from each floor can only go to their own floor after swiping their card.