CITIZENS ON THE FRONT BATTLE WITH PANDEMIC

A policy publication by experts from the World Bank, UN-Habitat, and the Global Resilient Cities Network, "Cities on the Frontlines of the Pandemic," stresses that the pandemic crisis will increase the number of poor by 100 million people, with most of the "new poor" living in cities. Slum areas and informal settlements, deprived of essential utilities and infrastructure, and access to medical care, are expected to be named areas of extraordinary risk. The inhabitants of such areas (about 1 billion people) are forced to use public water supplies and toilets.

A particular risk is associated with the low level of infrastructure provision in such territories. A high proportion of those employed in the informal sector and the self-employed with low incomes among residents in such regions. In a recovery situation from the pandemic, it is necessary to invest in infrastructure development in such territories. Still, the ability of municipalities will be constrained by the expected, according to the World Bank estimates, a fall in local budget revenues in 2021 by 15 - 25%. Based on the analysis of satellite images of the megacities of Cairo, Mumbai, and Kinshasa, World Bank experts have identified such high-risk areas and are drawing the attention of national governments and local authorities to them.    

It may seem that these theses are only a reflection of the traditional plan of international organizations for developing countries and are not directly related to Russia. However, the risks noted above have not been eliminated in Russian cities, and in today's environment, the dangers associated with this are only increasing.

In particular, according to the Rosstat 2018 Comprehensive Population Living Conditions Survey, about 2 million urban households (4.7%) do not have a bath/shower in their living quarters or even a separate structure (yard addition); in small towns (up to 50,000 people), 14.1% of such households. 5% of urban households do not have a toilet in their dwelling, including 0.3% who do not even have access to a bathroom in ordinary areas/separate buildings. About 3 million urban households (7%) use pit latrines without septic tanks, and 1.9% of urban households have no access to any sewer system (18.4% and 6.4%, respectively, in small towns). Also, a severe problem for the development of Russian cities is the expected decrease in tax revenues of local budgets by 2020 and 2021.

The topic of overcrowding and the associated inability to avoid contact in the Russian context is acutely related to the problem of pretty low standards of housing conditions for the population. This situation has shown a significant differentiation in the population's ability to "comfortably self-isolate.

Not all city dwellers have a separate room in an apartment: while the average household size in urban areas is about 2.5 people, the average number of rooms per household is 2.24, including 2.09 in the largest cities with millions. For many city dwellers, the standard of living involves settling into an apartment with one less room than the number of household members.

On the other hand, according to Rosstat, only 23% of urban households have other premises suitable for a living - separate apartments, rooms in a communal apartment, individual houses, houses on a garden (dacha) plot, another place "for permanent or seasonal residence. In general, the provision of "spare housing" increases with the size of the city: in cities with a population of millions, it reaches 31%, and in St. Petersburg - 35% and in Moscow - 36%.

The possibility of using a "spare home" is expected to depend on household income. Among households in the lowest quintile group by the level of average per capita income, the share of those with such a "spare home" is 1.6 times lower than the average for all households (estimate based on microdata from Rosstat).

Thus, not all city dwellers in Russia have the opportunity to retreat to a separate room or have a "spare dwelling," including in nature (that is, in a more comfortable environment than in the confined space of an apartment) and the fact of owning, for example, a summer cottage does not mean that it is the best place for self-isolation (not provided with essential utilities, suitable for remote work Internet, etc.). Today, the determining factor for Russian citizens is the very possibility for the household to choose the optimal place for self-isolation. For each person (including those infected), the case of relative isolation in a separate room when several family members live in an apartment.

The differentiation of such opportunities has always existed, but outside the context of the pandemic, it has been reduced to unequal opportunities for comfortable housing. However, with measures to prevent contamination becoming an everyday long-term reality, inequality in housing and ownership of alternative "dwellings" becomes an essential and pressing social problem.

In such a situation, it becomes urgent to rethink the priorities of state housing policy in the Russian Federation, aimed at reducing the noted differentiation, including measures to strengthen support for the construction of single-family houses in suburban areas, including a second dwellings and the establishment of targets for the provision of members of households with separate rooms.

11.02.2022

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