Homelessness in Russia

Nevertheless, the problem of complete homelessness was mostly solved as anybody could apply for a room or a place in dormitory (the number of shared flats steadily decreased after large-scale residential building program was implemented starting in the 1960s).

By the 1930s, the USSR declared the abolition of homelessness and every citizen was obliged to have a propiska – a place of permanent residency.

Nobody could be stripped of propiska without substitution or refuse it without a confirmed permission (called "order") to register in another place.

There were also virtually no empty and unused apartments in the cities: any flat where nobody was registered was immediately lent by the state at a symbolic price to others who needed better living conditions.

Because most flats had been privatized and many people sold their last shelter without successfully buying another, there was a sharp increase of the homeless.

[7] In the late 1990s, certain amendments in law were implemented to reduce the rise in homelessness, such as the prohibition of selling the last home with registered children.