“What, now to give housing to everyone who comes here?” – Picture of the day – Kommersant

Orphans living in Russia, but who did not have Russian citizenship at the time of majority, are denied housing. Such decisions by the executive branch and the courts may lead to the fact that some Ukrainian orphans who have ended up in Russia over the past eight months may also lose their right to housing.

“In guardianship, my grandmother was told that we have the right to receive housing in Moscow”

Tatyana Vizir was born in the Moldavian city of Balti. She was 9 years old and her sister was 8 when their mother died. They wanted to place the girls in a foster family, but the grandmother obtained permission to become the guardian of her granddaughters. “In Moldova, my sister and I had the status of orphans, grandmother was not paid anything for custody, since we are her relatives, but she received a pension for the loss of a breadwinner,” says Tatyana.

Five years after the death of their mother, they decided to leave for Moscow, where by that time Tatyana’s aunt, her mother’s sister, had already settled. “The only one who kept us in Balti was my great-grandmother, but in January 2015 she died,” Tatyana says. “I finished the eighth grade, and in the summer of that year we left.”

In Moscow, the girls settled with their aunt, went to school. Grandmother, as a guardian, was registered with the guardianship authorities. All three received a temporary residence permit, a year later – a residence permit, and in 2018 – citizenship of the Russian Federation. By this time, Tatyana was already 18 years old, her sister was 17.

“In guardianship, my grandmother was told that we have the right to receive housing in Moscow,” recalls Tatiana. “In November 2019, we completed the documents and submitted them to the Department of Labor and Social Protection. A month later, I received a letter of refusal: I was motivated by the fact that at the time of my 18th birthday I did not yet have Russian citizenship. I did not argue, I left everything as it is.

The younger sister got an apartment – in the south of Moscow in Nekrasovka, she recently moved there with her husband and child. “Housing is good, the area is new,” says Tatyana. She herself, along with her grandmother, still lives with her aunt.

At the age of 16, Tatyana entered college with a degree in court secretary. For free education, she lacked 4 points in the certificate. She got a job in a coffee shop to pay for her studies – she needed 140 thousand rubles. in year. “I used to wash the dishes, then I took and delivered orders,” she recalls. “I did my homework there when there was a break in work. The director saw this, treated with understanding. In the last year of her studies, she got a job as a clerk in a district court in Moscow, but did not last long there: “I had a huge amount of work, and I also had to study, I didn’t have time to sleep.” After graduating, she started looking for a new job. “I wanted to go into a specialty, I was offered a salary of a secretary in court of 14 thousand rubles,” she recalls. “But I had to feed myself and help my grandmother, she can no longer provide for herself. I can’t ask my aunt, we have been living with her for so many years.”

At the labor exchange, she was offered only a job as a janitor for 30 thousand rubles. per month. She began to independently search for vacancies on the Internet and since December 2020 she has been heading a department in a large retail chain. “In the first year I was promoted four times,” says Tatyana. “Of course, I was very tired. New responsibilities are added to each position, and old ones are not removed. My working day starts at seven and ends at midnight. They pay normally – 60 thousand per month, and if the bonus is 75 thousand. This is the best option that I was offered, and I really appreciate this job. I have enough for my grandmother for medicines and for myself to buy something. My aunt has two small children, and I want to pamper them somehow. So I bought my grandmother a ticket to a sanatorium – social security does not give her anything, and she is already quite old, she needs to improve her health.

We are talking in the office of the Center for Complicity in Fate charitable organization, its head Alexei Golovan has long defended the rights of orphans to receive housing, and since the summer of 2020 he has been helping Tatyana Vizir in courts.

“Federal Law 159 establishes additional guarantees for social support for orphans and children left without parental care,” explains Aleksey Golovan. “Article 8 of this law regulates the provision of housing for orphans. It contains paragraph 1, which lists those who have the right to a one-time provision with comfortable housing from a special housing stock: orphans and children left without parental care (in accordance with the conceptual apparatus, these are those who are not yet 18 years old) , persons from among orphans and children left without parental care (that is, persons from 18 to 23 years old who were orphans or left without parental care until the age of 18). Residential premises are provided, in particular, to persons from among orphans who do not have housing on the basis of ownership or conditions of social employment. The law does not require that an orphan must have Russian citizenship at the time of his 18th birthday.

According to the law, citizenship must be at the time of the orphan’s application for housing. Tatyana has no housing, she provided all the documents confirming her right to housing. She applied at the age of 19, when she already had citizenship.”

The Presnensky District Court dismissed Tatiana’s claim against the Moscow authorities, motivating her decision by the fact that at the time of adulthood Tatiana was not yet a citizen of the Russian Federation and “had a close legal connection with the state of Moldova.” All subsequent courts upheld the decision of the court of first instance.

“If at the age of 18 I was under the jurisdiction of another state, then on what basis did they give me benefits in Moscow for free travel and free meals at school and college? – says Tatyana. – On what basis did my grandmother receive benefits as a guardian? There was an official from the department of housing policy and housing stock in court, he said that Moscow is not obliged to provide housing for all visitors. But after all, at the time when I applied for an apartment, I was already a citizen of the Russian Federation and I had a permanent registration in Moscow with my aunt. I was 19 years old, I provided documents that I do not have any real estate. By law, orphans have the right to ask the state for housing until they are 23 years old.”

“Officers protect the housing stock from orphans as if it were their own apartments”

In September, a judge of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused Tatyana Vizir to transfer her cassation appeal for consideration by the Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases. In the same month, Tatyana, with the help of “Complicity in Fate”, filed a complaint against the Chairman of the Supreme Court – if he did not agree with the decision of the judge of the Supreme Court to refuse to consider her case, then the girl would have a chance for a hearing in the Supreme Court. However, the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court also refused.

“I don’t know how the judges read the federal law, which obliges the state to provide housing for people like Tatiana,” Alexey Golovan comments on the decisions of the courts. “It seems to me that the judges simply do not want to deal with this issue. Most likely, they proceed from the practice of considering claims for the provision of housing on a general basis by citizens who came to Russia from other states. But the judges do not take into account that the allocation of housing for orphans is regulated by special legislation. In the case of Vizir, the interpretation of the legislation by the courts does not comply with the content of Law No. 159 and the norms established by the state to protect the interests of orphans.”

According to the human rights activist, the Supreme Court was the last resort for Tatyana Vizir, “there is nowhere else to go.” “We really hoped that the Supreme Court would sort it out and correct the mistakes of the lower courts,” he says. “We still have the opportunity to appeal to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation with a complaint about the inconsistency of Article 8 of Federal Law No. 159 with the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, because either the article does not comply, or the provisions of this article are interpreted in a restrictive and discriminatory manner by the courts. I would like the Constitutional Court to recognize that the courts are interpreting the law incorrectly and that the case of Tatyana Vizir is subject to review.”

However, Aleksey Golovan does not exclude that the courts, refusing to satisfy such claims, are “afraid of something”.

“Lawyers who study the practice of considering cases by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation note that now the Constitutional Court, as a rule, accepts for consideration those complaints that will not be followed by a stream of applications for review of past court decisions and large financial costs for the state,” the human rights activist explains. in the appellate and cassation instances, the judges asked the question: “What, now to give housing to everyone who comes here?”

The human rights activist recalls that the housing problem in Moscow and the Moscow region is acute and the authorities often make decisions that restrict orphans from exercising their right to housing.

For example, children who are brought up in foster families in the Moscow region, but do not have permanent registration here, later, when they reach the age of majority, are often denied housing in the Moscow region. The same applies to Moscow. “Children can live with guardians in the Moscow region from an early age, have strong social ties and attachments here, but after coming of age, the authorities tell them to return to where they were born and registered, although they have no one left there: no relatives, no friends – only a registration in a dilapidated village house, – says Alexey Golovan. – We have a lot of such cases. Officials protect the housing stock from orphans as if it were their own apartments.”

A year ago, the Center “Complicity in Fate” represented the interests of the orphan Demyan S. in court. The boy was born in Western Ukraine, at the age of ten (after the death of his mother) he came to the Moscow region with his grandmother. The family had to live for many years in the suburbs without citizenship: the procedure for processing documents is complicated, the grandmother did not have enough knowledge, time and strength. However, she received an allowance as a guardian, and her grandson had the status of an orphan child and enjoyed all the benefits due to him as a ward child. They received citizenship when Demyan turned 18. The department of guardianship and guardianship refused to provide the guy with housing, because at the time of adulthood he did not have Russian citizenship. The district court agreed with this decision and dismissed Demyan’s claim that he had the right to receive an apartment from the special housing fund. The court decision contained the same wording that later appeared in the case of Tatyana Vizir: “At the time of his 18th birthday, he had a close legal connection with the state of Ukraine.”

“The judge, having read out the decision, told us: “Perhaps I didn’t understand, but then the court of appeal will correct me,” recalls Aleksey Golovan. with them. In April 2022, Demyan was included in the list of orphans to be provided with housing, and he has already received an apartment.”

However, this decision did not become a precedent, Aleksey Golovan notes. But the court refusals to Tatyana Vizir can become a precedent.

“I’m afraid that the decision in Tatyana’s case will become a model for deciding the fate of those children who used to live on the territory of Ukraine, and after February 24 ended up on the territory of the Russian Federation and who, after coming of age, will want to stay here,” says the human rights activist. “Here in foster families are not only small children, but also adolescents aged 16-17 years. And I admit that not all of them will have citizenship of the Russian Federation by the age of majority. This means that they, too, may be left without a home.”

“I can’t talk about the mass character of such cases, but it is obvious that the case of Tatyana Vizir is not the only one of its kind,” Golovan notes. Ukraine, and after February 24 ended up on the territory of the Russian Federation, and who, after coming of age, will want to stay here. Here, not only small children, but also teenagers aged 16–17 years old are in foster families. And I admit that not all of them will have citizenship of the Russian Federation by the age of majority. This means that they, too, may be left homeless. And we must proceed from the fact that orphans who find themselves in the Russian Federation at a minor age, who have received a temporary residence permit, and even more so a residence permit, having reached the age of 18, should enjoy all state guarantees established for this category of citizens, without any – or restrictions and discrimination”.

Olga Allenova