Seven on the benches in one-room flat: how the Ministry of Emergency Situations didn't give a damn about a large family

Even long-term service in the Ministry of Emergencies does not help...

Yulia Arkhipova, expert of the Russian Bar Association "For Human Rights"

Rosstat reports: the number of large families in Russia has grown by 25 percent in six years. Today, 1 million 233 thousand Russian families are raising three children, 233 thousand families have four, and 95 thousand have five to seven children. 5 thousand families are raising eight to ten children, 929 families have 11 or more children.

But here's another statistic - human rights statistics.

Every second large family does not receive the promised support of the state, a third feel deceived and increasingly interpret their path to a large family as a negative experience.

It is bitter to read these confessions. It is difficult to help, because most often it is about providing citizens with housing. There are such state programs - there are more than nine of them, but the average waiting time for real support is 10-15 years, many large families stand in lines for 20-25 years, to the point that the problem of providing real estate may lose its relevance - children grow up to them no one owes anything...

There are many examples, but there is one striking inconsistency - the large family of Chizhovs from St. Petersburg, which is raising five children. We talked about her in June last year ("Sleeping in turns, eating while standing": how a large family lives in a one-room apartment. "Novye Izvestia", June 4, 2020).

Recall that the mother of five children Yulia Chizhova works in the Ministry of Emergencies in St. Petersburg. A one-room apartment with a total area of 39 sq.m. is the only house owned by the family. Everything would be fine, but the tightness began to affect health. One of the Chizhovs' daughters acquired asthma in this apartment, Yulia herself became seriously ill, the doctors recommended to retire. But at the same time, every opportunity to improve living conditions is lost... Did the Chizhovs think that they would be stuck in a "odnushka"? No, they were sure that the state would help. However, as soon as the government issued a decree on housing benefits for security officials, the municipality quickly threw the family out of line. We got into our own, emcheesovskaya, about the formation of which we learned from the news on the Internet and from casual conversations at the service. True, the staff of the personnel departments and management have already lined up in front, but large families from among ordinary employees began to apply since 2014.

The first payments of ERUs in St. Petersburg began in 2016, over several years from 2016 to 2018. only 16 people received money for housing, despite the fact that now the turn of those wishing is striving for 1000 people. How many years will it take to receive ERUs from the Chizhov family? Yulia realized that the line was going back when, in front of her, the mother of five, a family with three children suddenly squeezed in, queued up later. Then it turned out that the line of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for ERUs in Russia is arranged in such a way that lists of large families by region are submitted to the general list, and which region submitted earlier, that one becomes the all-Russian queue earlier. And the meaning of regional lists with their own order began to seem less real.

Everything would be fine, and families with many children could wait indefinitely, if not for the legislative gap. The ERU Ordinance contains strict requirements for applicants for payment, and a very strict framework for children - from the age of 18 to 23, depending on whether the child is studying full-time at the university, - older children are excluded from the family. who is entitled to payment for housing. How so - the age limit for children has been determined, but the deadline for the payment of ERUs is not? And so ... The government knows how to save on social benefits.

The eldest son of Yulia Chizhova, Ilya, has already been caught: he is 23 years old, he has been deleted from the list of family members, he is not entitled to an ERU payment. At the same time, he still remained a member of the family and a son, but already without the rights to his square meters. Now Yulia Chizhova is worried that her daughter is growing up, who will soon turn 18, which means that she will also be kicked out of the queue - as if with growing up the child ceases to need living space, or he ceases to be a member of the family. This situation is causing serious tension. It turns out that Yulia's surname can again roll back, because she will become large with only three children of the same age.

As Alexei Chizhov, Yulia's husband, says, the movement in the queue in recent years, in the absence of issued ERUs or information about their payment, is largely due to formal nagging, because of which people are removed from the queue, then they are restored through the courts, at the same time someone's children grow up and someone drops out of this queue forever - this is how the illusion of movement is created. Someone disappears forever, someone comes back after 6-9 months, someone gives birth to another child. Alexey Chizhov spent a lot of effort to get clear answers from the Ministry of Emergencies, what budgets were allocated for ERUs in the years when the department did not print any lists of recipients of this very payment.

The answer came a year after the first letter. And it turned out that in 2016, 26,275,788 rubles 33 kopecks were brought to the Ministry of Emergency Situations in St. Petersburg. - this amount was enough for 3 families, in 2017 - 2 854 445 rubles 03 kopecks. - they blessed one employee, in 2018 - 85,841,474 rubles 04 kopecks. - for 12 families, where more than 24 million went to 2 large families. There is not a word on the 2019 and 2020 budgets.

And at this time, families that were on the waiting list in 2013 were to receive ERUs. When the turn comes to 2014, where the Chizhovs stand with their priority number "12", they can only guess, because to a direct question they are given a streamlined answer - "we are starting to provide ERUs for the 2014 waiting list".

But for perseverance and curiosity about the fate of the unified social payment, Yulia Chizhova has already paid, being left without a bonus at the end of 2020. Everyone around got an additional salary, they "forgot" about her and did not pay the legal 14,000 rubles. Realizing a few days later, the management called a mother of many children to her place and presented her with a tablet and a phone. Such a set was intended for the families of the deceased employees of the Ministry of Emergencies. Yulia Chizhova almost had a heart attack. Now they promise to compensate for the "surprise with precipitation" with a medal for 15 years of service in the Ministry of Emergencies, which she was supposed to receive back in 2017. Nobody even hinted about the social payment for housing, which a mother with many children expects the most...

The Chizhovs' history is not at all exceptional. Practically each of the 1,566,000 families with many children can try it on for themselves, since they have believed in the state and have worked hard to improve the demography.

What conclusions do human rights defenders draw? The current system of providing citizens with social housing is contradictory and ineffective. There is no unified procedure for providing apartments in Russia. The very mechanism of allocating apartments and unified social payments for their acquisition is unfair and non-transparent.

In our opinion, at the legislative level, it is necessary to develop a system of personified registration of citizens who need state support, and to create a controlled and transparent mechanism for providing social real estate.

Lack of a single queue leads not only to chaos and arbitrariness in relation to housing for large families. No matter how much is said about the “reset” of the country's demographic policy, there will be no reset as long as the children remain hostage to the housing issue, and the parents are faced with a choice - take a medal with a tablet or wait until they turn blue to receive an apartment. At the same time, the chances of getting it are as ghostly as the mirage of an oasis in the desert. Many try to sue for violation of rights. There are now several thousand lawsuits against the state in courts from large families. There are decisions in favor of the plaintiffs ... But there is clearly something wrong with apartments and demographic policy, if the rights of large families - the pillars of Russia, according to the president, have to be defended exclusively in the courts. Young parents will think a hundred times before deciding on a large family and participating in state programs.