Residential front: in 11 regions, people cannot move out of emergency homes
For many years, citizens in more than ten Russian regions have been unable to achieve resettlement from emergency homes, Izvestia found out. In Komi, for example, budget funds are insufficient to compensate residents — they were offered temporary accommodation in a dormitory for an indefinite period. In Yaroslavl, people were promised to move only by 2035, but they fear that the building will not be able to withstand such a long period of operation. The terms of resettlement vary depending on the subject of the federation, but if there is a shortage of funding, the procedure can take years, the lawyers explained. For more information, see the Izvestia article.
What are the tenants complaining about?
In at least 11 regions, Russians have been forced to live in recognized emergency homes for years, Izvestia estimates. In particular, complaints are received from Volgograd, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tyumen, Yaroslavl, Tula, Leningrad, Ulyanovsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Yakutia, Komi.
Vera Prokofieva, a pensioner from Volgograd, told Izvestia that she has been living in emergency housing since 2007.
— We had accident after accident: the basement was flooded with boiling water, steam was coming in full force, rising to the fifth floor. There was also a flood — a pipe burst, because everything is rotten here. First the cold water went, then the hot water. Due to the rising steam, a neighbor's mold appeared all over the wall — the apartment is so stuffy that a heater is not needed," she shared.
Her neighbor Ksenia reported that she had contacted the management company, and also complained to the district prosecutor's office, the housing inspectorate and the Investigative Committee of Russia.
— No one offered to move us. The walls are wet at home, everything is covered in mold — my child and I breathe it, so you can get asthma. There was no heating this year, we lived with a heater all winter. It's dirty around the house, they don't clean up the garbage," she said.
In Yaroslavl, a local resident, Yershan, lives in an emergency house with communal apartments with six children. He made repairs in the kitchen, but then the ceiling partially collapsed.
— We've gone everywhere: they promise, but they don't do anything. The house is in terrible condition," he told Izvestia.
In Nadezhda's apartment, a significant part of the ceiling also collapsed. In the near future, this will happen in the corridor, she believes.
"Once again, plaster has collapsed from the ceiling," Tamara, another resident of the emergency house, told Izvestia. — I went to all the administrations, and with a lot of grief I managed to get a plasterboard ceiling made for us. They promised to beat off all the plaster, but it was laborious, so they sewed the drywall just like that, without beating it off.
She independently covers up the cracks that constantly appear. According to Tamara, there has never been hot water in the house.
Now residents are trying to achieve resettlement through the court. Their house has been declared an emergency, but a new one will not be given until 2035. They make repairs to common areas on their own, while repairs do not give significant results, as the house is being destroyed. Some of them decided not to take risks and moved into rented housing.
A multi-storey house in Pechora (Komi Republic) was declared an emergency back in 2021, resident Natalia told Izvestia. In 2025, the administration asked the residents to apply for compensation for resettlement. And on February 27, 2026, they were advised to leave their apartments before March 16 without transferring money.
— The administration suggests moving to the maneuver fund, which is a dormitory with common areas. There's a toilet on the floor, a shower on several floors, small rooms. They said that they would settle based on the norm of 6 square meters per person," she added.
Elena and Sergey have their own four-room apartment. They will be allocated about 30 square meters for their family with three children in the hostel, which is half the size of their apartment. The terms that they will have to spend in temporary housing have not been announced.
— We will not go to the hostel, — said pensioner Vitaly Kruglov.
At the end of February, local authorities told the residents of the house that they did not have the means to pay compensation for the apartments, the owners claim. They appealed to the prosecutor's office.
Head of the Municipal Property Management Committee (KUMS) of MR PechoraSvetlana Buralkina confirmed the problems with financing.
"As of today, we cannot immediately pay compensation," she admitted.
The administration of the Pechora municipal district told Izvestia that it was not possible to determine the exact timing of the transfer of monetary compensation to the owners, and the provision of comfortable apartments to the tenants.
"They will be installed within the framework of the approved program. After the inclusion of MKD No. 83 on Pechorsky Avenue in Pechora in the regional program for the resettlement of citizens from the emergency housing stock, citizens will be resettled in accordance with the established procedure," they said.
On the territory of the Pechora municipal district, 243 multi-family residential buildings have been recognized as emergency, subject to demolition or reconstruction, and have not yet been resettled. These are 1,444 families.
"As of the current date, funding from the federal and regional levels has not been brought to the budget of the municipality of the Pechora municipal district. The Ministry of Defense of MR Pechora is a participant in the regional Program. However, measures for the resettlement of citizens from the emergency housing stock, recognized as such after 01.01.2017, are not provided for in the framework of the 2026-2029 stages of the Program in the territory of the Ministry of Defense of the Pechora Region due to lack of funding," the administration added.
At the same time, Valery Serov, the former mayor of Pechora, was arrested in 2023. The investigation revealed that the mayor refused to recognize the houses as emergency and deliberately did not include them in the register. In May 2024, one of these houses collapsed.
In the city of Aldan in Yakutia, there is also an emergency apartment building without electricity, where people are forced to live. In one of the entrances on the ground floor, the floor, along with the batteries, fell into the basement, one of the residents wrote to Izvestia.
"Living in a house is impossible and life-threatening. But the local administration is inactive and collects money for utilities. The bill is for major repairs and heating," he complained.
According to Article 169 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, owners of apartment buildings that have been declared emergency and subject to demolition do not pay dues for major repairs.
Almost a million people were resettled
In Russia, in 2024, the indicator for the resettlement of people from emergency housing was exceeded as part of the national project "Housing and Urban Environment", the public law company Territorial Development Fund told Izvestia.
"The targets of the completed federal project for 2019-2024 amounted to 560.8 thousand people, 9.9 million square meters of emergency housing stock. In fact, 829.18 thousand people were resettled," they reported. — Financing from the federal budget in the period from 2019 to 2024 amounted to 477.8 billion rubles."
From 2025 to 2030, people will be resettled as part of the Infrastructure for Life project, the Territorial Development Fund added. This will affect 345 thousand people.
"530.8 billion rubles are provided for the implementation of the measures. Financing in 2025 from the federal budget amounted to 29.68 billion rubles," the Fund noted.
As of January 1, 2026, 922.96 thousand people have been resettled in seven years — since 2019. Currently, there are 23 million square meters of apartment buildings in Russia, which are recognized as emergency.
"The subsidy funds from the federal budget are distributed proportionally to the needs of each region in the total volume of emergency housing in Russia. That is, those who have more emergency housing will receive more financial support for that region," the Territorial Development Fund explained the system.
Terms of housing provision
Regional resettlement programs for dilapidated and dilapidated housing primarily include buildings in the worst condition, said Alla Georgieva, a civil lawyer. But the relocation process is not fast — it takes from several months to several years, depending on the condition of the housing.
— In such a house, apartment owners have the right to compensation, and people living under a social rental agreement have the right only to resettlement, — the lawyer reminded.
But when resettling an emergency fund, deadlines are not always met, sometimes people wait a very long time for new housing, Alla Georgieva emphasized.
The resettlement takes place at the expense of the budget funds of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, but there may not be enough funding, lawyer Nare Lukashova explained to Izvestia.
"If a house is recognized as an emergency, and people's lives and health are in danger, then citizens should contact the prosecutor's office," she added.
According to the lawyer, the agency can reduce the waiting period for new housing through the court. In this case, you'll have to wait for a while anyway, but not for decades.
— If the house is recognized as an emergency, it does not mean that it will be resettled tomorrow, — said Nare Lukashova. — Since each region has its own time frame for resettlement, citizens in this case need to be active, insist on resolving their issue as soon as possible and involve all higher authorities.
The municipality cannot indefinitely postpone the relocation of people, says lawyer Elena Rudakova.
— There are expert opinions regarding the danger of housing. If the region does not resolve the issue, the federal authorities should take measures and punish such non—functioning structures," she believes.
If there is a danger of a house collapse, but it is not possible to provide residents with adequate housing, then they need to be relocated to temporary — maneuverable facilities so that people are safe, Konstantin Krokhin, chairman of the Board of the Union of Housing Organizations, member of the Committee on Entrepreneurship in Housing and Communal Services of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia..
— The key problem of the resettlement of the emergency fund is the lack of sufficient money from the authorities. We know cases when the prosecutor's office issues an order to comply with the requirements of the legislation on resettlement. And they may not be fulfilled for decades," he noted. — If there is no money in the budget, even if there is a court decision that has entered into force and an order from a supervisory authority, such as the prosecutor's office, a person may not receive housing that is required by law.
The provision of housing for the maneuverable fund is of an emergency nature and is aimed at providing temporary housing, civil lawyer Karina Asanova told Izvestia.
—Relocation to a maneuverable housing does not entail the removal of citizens from the register of those in need of housing, does not relieve the administration of the obligation to provide equivalent housing under the terms of a social rental agreement, from the payment of monetary compensation," she concluded.
Initially, the program for the resettlement of citizens from emergency housing gave priority to houses that were declared uninhabitable before January 1, 2017. However, then they began to include high-rise buildings that were recognized as emergency after that date. In 2025, new rules began to apply to citizens, according to which residents can receive compensation in the amount of the market value of housing, minus the costs of demolition or reconstruction of the building.
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