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- And houses are better: the authorities wanted to expand the housing rights of orphaned children
And houses are better: the authorities wanted to expand the housing rights of orphaned children
The State Duma decided to increase the protection of orphans' housing rights. To this end, the parliamentarians have introduced three bills. They expand the possibilities of obtaining housing with the help of a housing certificate, strengthen the protection of such real estate and provide guarantees to the heirs of orphans who died during their military service. The draft laws will eliminate contradictions in legislation and achieve social justice, experts say. Whether the initiatives will protect the rights of orphans is in the Izvestia article.
Elimination of contradictions
Three bills have been submitted to the State Duma on the protection of orphans' housing rights. The relevant initiatives were prepared by members of the working group on housing for orphaned children. The new standards have already received the support of relevant departments and representatives of the factions.
The State is currently implementing a set of measures aimed at providing citizens with affordable and suitable housing. In particular, it is provided to orphans and children left without parental care, says the expert of the direction "Popular Front. Analytics", lawyer Oksana Starozhiltseva.
Housing provision for this category of citizens is currently the most urgent problem, she draws attention to.
— Today, in many regions, the issuance of a housing certificate is the only possible way to obtain housing, — says the expert.
The first draft law expands the possibilities of using such certificates, it is noted in the explanatory note to the document. Today, legislation sets out the requirements that an applicant applying for payment must meet. In particular, he must have a documented income of at least one year at least below the minimum wage. He must provide a citizen and his family with an average per capita income corresponding to the minimum subsistence level set for a particular region.
However, this requirement actually prevents a significant number of orphans from receiving payments, since their spouses' salaries are not taken into account in the calculation. This approach contradicts the provisions of family law, which provides for joint ownership of married persons. And families have the right to dispose of common property by mutual consent.
At the stage of introducing certificates as a measure of social support, the authorities hoped that they would be in demand among orphans. But in practice, the income restriction turned out to be too harsh, says Alexey Golovan, head of the Complicity in Fate charity center.
— For almost a year and a half of implementation, from January 2024 to June 2025, we received a large number of requests related to the inability to obtain a certificate. Regional prosecutors also receive such complaints," says Oksana Khukhlina, a lawyer at the Volunteers for Orphaned Children charity foundation.
There is a paradoxical situation in which the orphan's spouse, for example, is a military man with a high income. But this income is not taken into account, and the orphan's salary does not provide a living wage for the whole family. And obtaining a certificate in this case becomes impossible, illustrates the problem of Golovan.
The bill, which expands the possibilities of obtaining housing with the help of a housing certificate, will allow more citizens from among orphaned children to use this form of support, Starozhiltseva agrees.
However, it is important that the wording adopted by the authorities takes into account not only the salary of the spouse, but also various social benefits, Khukhlina believes. This will allow the most vulnerable categories of orphans to receive a certificate. For example, women who are on parental leave.
Enhanced security
The second bill, in turn, is designed to increase the security of real estate for orphaned children and children left without parental care, acquired with the help of housing certificates. This is stated in the explanatory note to the document.
According to the law, such housing cannot be alienated, pledged, leased, rented, and so on for three years. This restriction was introduced to protect orphaned children from fraud and contains no exceptions.
However, today there is no requirement to enter this information into the Unified State Register of Real Estate, which still makes it possible to make transactions before the expiration of the three-year period if there is ownership of housing.
Even at the stage of entering housing certificates, there were concerns that homeowners would be at risk and would sell the property they received, becoming a victim of fraud, Alexey Golovan notes.
— Therefore, initially, by introducing certificates, the authorities imposed a three-year ban on the alienation of housing acquired through payments. But this ban doesn't really work because it's not registered," the expert points out the problem.
Today, according to him, there are already precedents for orphans selling residential premises purchased with certificates. And the bill developed by parliamentarians is aimed at consolidating the ban at the legislative level.
In fact, the parliamentarians' initiative eliminates the existing legal gap, Oksana Starozhiltseva believes. She expects that this will create greater protection of orphans' housing rights from illegal, including fraudulent, actions.
Social justice
The third draft law is aimed at protecting the rights of the heirs of orphans who died in the line of military duty, including in the free military zone.
According to the law on the support of orphans, the right to housing for them is realized through the provision of real estate from a specialized housing stock under rental agreements. Upon their expiration, a new social employment contract is concluded with the employer. Such contracts specify the members of the orphan's family who will be able to claim ownership of housing.
After the orphan reaches the age of 23, he has the right to receive payments for the purchase of real estate or mortgage repayment. It is provided on the basis of inclusion in a special list. And members of the orphan's family cannot enter it — they can only use the housing already received by the beneficiary.
In case of death of a citizen who has the right to receive real estate, he is excluded from the list. Accordingly, his family is deprived of the opportunity to receive housing or payment for its purchase.
At the same time, orphans can enlist in military service by conscription, mobilization or contract, as well as join volunteer formations. And in the event of their death, a situation arises in which widows (or widowers) are not given the right to payments. The bill of the parliamentarians proposes to eliminate the prerequisites for the occurrence of such situations.
The document is aimed at achieving social justice, Alexey Golovan believes. Orphans included in the housing list often do not acquire real estate immediately after they reach adulthood.
— Many people have to wait 5-7 years. And during this time, they may die while serving in the army," the expert warns.
Oksana Khukhlina is convinced that the new amendment can really support the child or spouse of a member of the SVO who died while performing combat missions.
— At the same time, the legislator gives a reservation, according to which family members will be able to independently decide which benefit to use. If, for example, they have housing benefits as a military family, they will determine which support measure is more profitable for them. And the fact that the legislator did not forget to extend this privilege to legal relations that have arisen since 2022, inspires hope and confidence," the lawyer emphasizes.
An acute situation
The housing situation for orphaned children is still difficult today, Alexey Golovan draws attention to. At the moment, about 190 thousand people are on the waiting list for housing. Normally, an orphan should receive real estate upon reaching the age of 18, but due to a lack of funds for these purposes, the state is in debt.
The benefit for providing orphans with housing is federal, but its implementation is carried out at the expense of the subjects of the Russian Federation, the expert clarifies. Special subsidies have been allocated at the federal level for more than 15 years, but they are not enough to provide timely housing for all orphans.
— In recent years, the subsidy has consistently amounted to 10 billion rubles. Accordingly, taking into account inflation, fewer and fewer residential premises are purchased every year, and the responsibility for providing orphans with them falls on the budgets of the subjects. And most of them are subsidized, and the cost of providing housing for orphans is not fully covered," the expert points out the problem.
Oksana Starozhiltseva agrees that not all regions of the Russian Federation can fully cover the need for such housing. In this regard, queues in some regions continue to increase.
Only last year, the list began to shrink slightly, Golovan points out. The Accounting Chamber notes that the situation with providing orphaned children with housing has improved slightly for the first time in 2024, confirms Oksana Khukhlina. Last but not least, this has been achieved with the advent of housing certificates.
— To improve the situation, it is also important to work with informing orphans, because for the past year and a half we have been faced with the fact that people do not know where to apply, what grounds there are for obtaining a certificate, what documents to provide and what to do next with this certificate. Therefore, it is important to ensure information accessibility," the lawyer urges.
But the problem with providing orphans with housing lies not only in the lack of funds and lack of awareness. To obtain real estate, beneficiaries often have to sue the authorities, Golovan emphasizes.
— Every year, thousands of citizens who were left without parental care in childhood are forced to apply to the courts in order to exercise their right to housing. And in many cases, after the trial, housing is provided faster than in an administrative order," the expert notes.
In some cases, orphans have to prove that they have the right to receive housing because the State has challenged it. Citizens, as a rule, also win such cases, but there are no negative consequences for officials who have made illegal decisions, the Izvestia interlocutor is outraged. This situation continues to be a serious problem, requiring further legislative regulation.
To clarify the information, the Izvestia editorial board sent a request to the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation, which oversees housing for orphaned children. No response has been received at the time of publication.
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