The right to housing and the housing of citizens of a state is based on state intervention, that is, the executive power intervention, and is dependent on social order. This paper first theoretically describes the relationship between housing, social housing and the housing policy, and then by using a comparative approach it presents the housing policy in capitalist societies, socialist societies and post-socialist societies. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of international and European legal norms in exercising social rights and thereby an individual's right to housing. The paper seeks to show the position of the citizens of the Republic of Croatia in their exercise of the housing rights through the national legislative framework until 2020. With the help of a comparative approach the negative and positive sides of the national legislation will be endeavored to be shown and potentially will offer better solutions. In a specific way, this paper looks at the occupancy right with the aim of recapitulating all good that the occupancy right did and what the consequences of its abolition are. The paper is a kind of presentation of how the European Union helps and how it influences the housing positions of the citizens of the Republic of Croatia, including the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. Starting from the hypothesis that the existing legal framework ensures housing security of the citizens of the Republic of Croatia, that the legal framework for (social) housing is complex in its structure and implementation and that the housing policy and social housing in the Republic of Croatia are developing in accordance with relevant European and international policies, in the concluding discussion, the national legislation is observed in interrelation between relevant European and international policies with effort to provide answers to possible legislative changes and approaches.