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Seeking help for aging people in old homes
From:Shanghai Daily  |  2017-06-26 02:29

FOR elderly people with limited mobility who live in old residential blocks without lifts, steps can be a distressing, if dangerous, part of daily life.

Hu Guanzhang, 88, tightly grasps the handrails when going up and down from her third-floor apartment in Jing’an District. Since 2011, she has been campaigning for installation of an elevator in her 35-year-old building. The sixth-story building, Block 11 at 639 Huashan Road, is home to 30 households, including 17 with residents aged 80 years or older, and four with residents over 90.

Shanghai, with about a third of permanent residents 60 years or older, is trying to address the problem of hard-to-access homes. Apartments bought when people were younger can become accessibility nightmares with aging.

In Hu’s block, after years of discussion on an elevator installation plan and how to share the cost, 29 of the households finally reached agreement. However, the owner of a flat on the first floor balked, leaving the project pending.

According to the latest policy on lift installation in Shanghai, a minimum of 90 percent of residents in a block have to agree, and without clear objections from the dissenters. The policy, released last year, was aimed at simplifying the application process for installation of elevators as part of improved services for the elderly and disabled.

However, gaining consensus among neighbors is no quick or easy task.

Shanghai has more than 200,000 multi-story buildings without lifts, comprising five million households, according to the Shanghai Senior Citizens Foundation. The ratio of elderly residents in older residential buildings is high.

“When I first moved here, the staircase was not an issue,” Hu said. “But as we age, it becomes increasingly hard to manage stairways. I don’t have the knees and the strength that I used to have. Many residents in this building have heart conditions.”

Ding Mingjiu, 85, who lives a floor above Hu, suffered a stroke three years ago, and getting her out of the building on a stretcher required four members of an ambulance team carrying her down the stairways, according to her 90-year-old husband.

Discussion about lift installations in the building began years ago. The residents’ first proposal to the district housing management authority was denied in 2012 because of disagreement among neighbors, particularly over allocation of costs.

In 2016, with the cost issue resolved, the residents resubmitted their application. According to the new agreement, apartments on the first floor don’t have to pay anything for the lift. Homes on the second floor pay 5,000 yuan (US$732), and that number rises by 5,000 yuan for each ascending floor. Those living on top floor will pay 25,000 yuan each.

Despite the exemption for first-floor residents, one homeowner there objected to the project and complained about it to the Shanghai municipal hotline.

The woman, who declined to identify herself, said she is concerned that installation of an elevator might adversely affect the building structure.

The first elevator to be installed in an old residential building occurred on Yan’an Road W. in 2012, according to a neighborhood realty agency. The elevator does have an impact on the value of homes in the building, particularly those on upper floors, agency staff said.

One staff member estimated that the elevator adds about 100,000 yuan to value as floors go up.

Xu Xiaofeng, a deputy researcher with the city’s housing management authority, said the long debate that occurred in Hu’s residential building is typical in Shanghai. He said elevator projects get snarled in controversies over cost, installation methods and resident conflicts.

“With a lift added,” he said, “the ventilation and natural lighting for residents on lower floors may be affected, and their home values may also decline.”

Xu said authorities are trying to come up with better plans for helping residents to resolve their disputes.

Shanghai has approved more than 70 lift-installation projects, including 14 lifts already in operation and five under construction. Such projects are expanding in many districts, Xu said.

Other ways to address the problem are also being tested.

For example, Jing’an District is promoting the use of stairlifts, or motorized chairs on a track that is secured to the railing of a staircase. The chair can be activated to carry a person upstairs or downstairs. It requires no structural changes to a building.

Then there is the option of helping disabled elderly residents move to more modern residential buildings or perhaps to nursing homes.

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