Live and get: why Russians want to prioritize social security payments for housing
The State Duma has sent an appeal to Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin with a proposal to give Russian families an advantage in receiving social benefits for the purchase of housing at the expense of the budget. It is also proposed to introduce a minimum number of years of residence in Russia, after which new citizens will be able to count on such support. The initiative was initiated due to complaints from Russians to the Federal Assembly and a number of cases currently being handled by the Investigative Committee. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Who is entitled to housing improvement benefits
In Russia, a key measure of support for families is the social payment for the purchase of housing at the expense of the federal and regional budgets. According to the rules, a young family in need of an apartment (the age of each spouse is up to 36 years old) who is raising one or more children can count on her.
Payments may also be made in the case where one of the spouses is not a Russian citizen. Or an incomplete young family consisting of one parent — a citizen of the Russian Federation — and one child or more. At the same time, those families with three or more children have the right to receive such an extraordinary state payment. By law, certificates are issued to citizens of the Russian Federation with registration. At the same time, if migrants have both citizenship and registration, they have the right to submit a report on housing certificates.
State Duma deputy Alexander Yakubovsky asked the government to amend the rules for granting such a subsidy, eliminating the possibility of several families receiving it (Izvestia has the document). First of all, we are talking about those families where one of the spouses is not a citizen of the Russian Federation, if at least five years have passed since the last spouse received Russian citizenship. "A family where one or both spouses have acquired Russian citizenship must live in the territory of the subject of the Russian Federation in which it claims to receive social benefits for at least three years," the appeal says.
"In a number of subjects of the Russian Federation, against the background of increasing migration flows from the CIS countries, a paradoxical situation has developed when a third or more of the families receiving social benefits on an extraordinary basis are migrant families, including when one of the spouses is not even a Russian citizen," the deputy said in an interview with Izvestia. — But this not only lengthens the waiting list for young families to receive payments, which sometimes exceeds four to five years, but also puts the families of Russian citizens at a disadvantage.
However, if the proposed rules are introduced, the MP understands that "there will undoubtedly be attempts to circumvent the restrictions, using both legal gaps and violating the law."
The Russian Ministry of Construction declined to comment on this initiative. The Russian Ministry of Justice informed the publication that they had not yet received this proposal.
By order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 02/13/2025 No. 317-r, in 2025 the authorities plan to issue 1,831 state housing certificates (GZHS) in the amount of about 10 billion rubles.
The rules for allocating housing certificates and the migrant scandal
Alexander Yakubovsky told Izvestia that the reason for the initiative was numerous complaints from Russians to the State Duma, as well as a number of cases related to housing certificates. In addition, the scandal began to spread on social networks. It turned out that housing needs almost simultaneously "escalated" in the Irkutsk region, Khabarovsk Territory, and Tatarstan. And everywhere scandals are connected with the awarding of housing certificates to families of recent migrants.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation quickly became interested in the cascade of incidents. He opened a criminal case under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Abuse of official authority") after issuing housing certificates to families of former migrants in Bratsk. Almost 30 families received certificates under the program "Affordable housing for Young families" at the end of February. Moreover, the city administration presented some of the certificates to the families of natives of Central Asian countries, who until recently were considered migrants. The amount of social security payments, depending on the composition of the family, ranged from 624 thousand to 2 million rubles. Another case was initiated in the Moscow region, where a mother with many children from Tajikistan, who received a housing certificate, was detained. The woman forged an income and did not report that she lives in Tajikistan most of the time, and not in the Russian Federation.
Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, also instructed to check online information about possible violations when issuing a housing certificate to a "family with a migration history" in the Ryazan region. "The media reported on the public's disagreement with the provision by the administration of the Skopinsky district of the Ryazan region of a housing certificate for a large sum to a family of migrants from Uzbekistan. Despite the fact that local residents who need better housing conditions have been waiting in line for years, the decision was made in favor of a family with a migration history," the Investigative Committee's information center reports.
Izvestia asked the administration and the press service of the administrations of the Khabarovsk Territory, Irkutsk and Ryazan regions, and the Republic of Tatarstan for clarification on the situation around the housing and communal services. No responses had been received at the time of publication.
Subsidy for the purchase of housing — who is entitled
Ilya Ponomarev, a member of the Public Council of the Russian Ministry of Construction, believes that the issue of introducing a "residency qualification" will not solve the problem that has become the reason for the proceedings in different regions of Russia.
The fact is that a number of housing programs for certain categories of citizens are funded unevenly, both in terms of filling and in terms of regional budgets, the expert notes. The procedure for granting subsidies at the regional and local levels is determined by the priority, the funds are paid in the amount of funding for each category.
Today, according to him, the number of waiting lists in all categories is about 2 million families, and the amount of funds needed to completely "close the housing issue" is objectively beyond the strength of the current budget system, the expert believes.
"Besides, from the point of view of the Constitution, the segregation of citizens into "old" and "new" looks wrong,— comments Ponomarev. — Rather, it makes sense to return to the practice of social hiring, when housing is provided to citizens in a special housing stock owned by the state and not subject to privatization.
According to him, today the issue has been resolved in this way in most developed countries, while the only criterion for obtaining such housing there is a lack of income. A similar technique applies to subsidizing utility bills.
The interlocutor points out that the key principles of state support are fairness and targeted nature. It is difficult to provide these two points in the current system, focused mainly on special mortgage programs, since families in real need cannot use a mortgage even with the most favorable rate, the expert complains.
Ilya Ponomarev emphasizes that there are two possible solutions. The first option is to find resources to fully finance all support programs, but this is not easy and will cause difficulties related to the difference in housing prices between regions, since subsidies are calculated based on these prices. The second way involves a fundamental change in the approach that will ensure citizens have the right to quality housing, rather than free provision of real estate.
Olga Vlasova, an adviser to the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of the Russian Federation, recalled that the "residency qualification" proposed by the State Duma has long existed in Moscow.
"People in need of better housing conditions will not be put on the waiting list here if they have lived in Moscow for less than 10 years," the specialist explains. — And believe me, many large families have not been able to get apartments for years. They've been waiting in line for 20 years.
In her opinion, "it would be quite fair if the state first fulfills its obligations to those who have been waiting in line for a long time, and only then to new citizens."
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