{"title":"HOUSING VOUCHERS FOR CARE LEAVERS IN RUSSIA: OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS IN THE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR THEIR EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION","authors":"Elena Gorina, Liubov Kosinova","doi":"10.17323/1999-5431-2023-0-3-48-71","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"For a decade the public authorities in Russia have been failing to fulfill its obligations to young care leavers. The long-term waiting list for public housing is an acute problem of social policy in the country that requires new tools to be solved. Housing vouchers, or lump-sum social payments for the purchase of residential property, at the expense of the Russian regions’ budgets, are supposed to be one of them. The paper aims to evaluate the legal framework of the housing vouchers program from the perspective of opportunities and barriers it has for eliminating the problem. The study used data from the relevant laws and regulations covering all regions, where the housing vouchers were established from 2019 to 2023. The concept of performance-oriented social program and key factors influencing the access to public benefits constitute our theoretical framework. Within it, we examine the range of terms and conditions that should be met by applicants to successfully buy residential properties by means of the housing vouchers. Our findings show that the regulations concerning customer focus, providing lower thresholds for applicants, promoting awareness about the program and its entitlement criteria, and shortening the duration of administrative procedures are likely to contribute to the increase of program performance. On the contrary, barriers that prevent obtaining proper results are due to high transaction costs of claiming support, low purchasing power of payments in the housing market, tight restrictions on how recipients should dispose funds and excessively strict eligibility criteria.","PeriodicalId":43338,"journal":{"name":"Voprosy Gosudarstvennogo i Munitsipalnogo Upravleniya-Public Administration Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Voprosy Gosudarstvennogo i Munitsipalnogo Upravleniya-Public Administration Issues","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.17323/1999-5431-2023-0-3-48-71","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
For a decade the public authorities in Russia have been failing to fulfill its obligations to young care leavers. The long-term waiting list for public housing is an acute problem of social policy in the country that requires new tools to be solved. Housing vouchers, or lump-sum social payments for the purchase of residential property, at the expense of the Russian regions’ budgets, are supposed to be one of them. The paper aims to evaluate the legal framework of the housing vouchers program from the perspective of opportunities and barriers it has for eliminating the problem. The study used data from the relevant laws and regulations covering all regions, where the housing vouchers were established from 2019 to 2023. The concept of performance-oriented social program and key factors influencing the access to public benefits constitute our theoretical framework. Within it, we examine the range of terms and conditions that should be met by applicants to successfully buy residential properties by means of the housing vouchers. Our findings show that the regulations concerning customer focus, providing lower thresholds for applicants, promoting awareness about the program and its entitlement criteria, and shortening the duration of administrative procedures are likely to contribute to the increase of program performance. On the contrary, barriers that prevent obtaining proper results are due to high transaction costs of claiming support, low purchasing power of payments in the housing market, tight restrictions on how recipients should dispose funds and excessively strict eligibility criteria.
期刊介绍:
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION ISSUES is a scientific peer-reviewed journal published by the National Research University High School of Economics (NRU HSE).The journal is published quarterly in Russian, and contains original articles by Russian and foreign authors. In addition, a special English language issue containing original articles by Russian and foreign authors has been published since 2014. The editorial board consists of leading Russian and foreign scientists in the field of public administration as well as prominent practitioners. The journal is indexed in the international databases: Scopus, RePEc, EBSCOand the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) on the platform of Web of Science. In addition, the journal is on the list of key peer-reviewed scientific journals and publications that the Higher Certification (Attestation) Commission in the RF Education Ministry recommends for publishing the main scientific results of theses for PhD and doctoral degrees in Economics, Sociology and Law. The journal focuses on the following subject areas: − Current theories of public administration. − Theoretical fundamentals of economic and social policy − Factors and Assessment of efficiency in public and municipal administration. − Innovations in the system of public and municipal administration. − Planning and forecasting in the system of public and municipal administration. − Staff of the state and municipal service. Management of personnel in public and municipal bodies and in organizations of the public sectors. − Financial, logistical and information resources of the state and municipalities. − Public service. − Functional features of public sector organizations. − Partnership of the state and municipalities with nongovernmental nonprofit organizations. Economic and administrative challenges facing “third sector.” - Development of education programs on public administration.