Assessing the needs and opportunities of families with children in improving housing conditions

Housing is one of the key conditions for the well-being of families with children and realization of their reproductive plans. Despite the fact that this problem is in the center of attention of the state, it does not lose its acuteness due to rising housing prices and the continuing low income level of most households with children. In the world practice there are two main approaches to its solution: through stimulating the acquisition of housing in the ownership of households and through the development of the social rental housing system. The Russian state policy includes both these directions, the development of which has been uneven, and the effectiveness of which requires careful assessment including in terms of meeting the needs of households in improving housing conditions. In the article, based on the materials of statistics and sample observation of living conditions, conducted by the Federal State Statistics Service in 2022, we show that in Russia as a whole and in the Vologda Oblast in 2010-2020 there was a gradual increase in the share of families that have the opportunity to purchase housing that meets the standards of housing provision with the help of their own and borrowed funds. However, for the majority of households with children in the Vologda Oblast, the low level of income becomes an insurmountable obstacle to the purchase of their own housing. Such instruments as preferential mortgage lending and maternity capital provide signifi cant support mainly to large families and families with children under 3 years of age. Signifi cant and time-consuming debt burden associated with mortgage loan repayment signifi cantly reduces the standard of living of households with children. In general, taking into account the accumulated world experience, as well as the observed discrepancies between eff ective demand for housing and its supply in the regional market, it is advisable to make efforts to develop the system of social rental housing.