The article raises the issue of Russian single-industry cities, the social situation and social policy in the city as part of urban planning policy. The main attention is paid to the analysis of the situation at the single-industry cities: social aspects of urban planning policy (as illustrated by the gold-mining city of Bodaibo, Irkutsk region). More than 60 % of the city population is directly or indirectly connected with the gold mining industry. Consequently, Bodaibo can be considered as a single-industry gold-mining city that requires attention from the authorities and a special approach to the urban policy development. The relevance of the study is explained by the fact that there are no systematic comprehensive (including sociological) studies on gold mining cities and settlements in Russia. Purpose of the study: studying the needs of residents of the city of Bodaibo to improve the quality of life in terms of solving social problems and developing proposals to determine the directions of urban planning policy. Research results: in October 2022, the authors of the article conducted a sociological survey of the city Bodaibo residents to identify the satisfaction of citizens with living and working conditions, and to assess the comfort of the environment. It was found that the social conditions in the city are deteriorating: 30 % of citizens noted the quality of life as the worst, more than 60 % of respondents rated the state of social infrastructure as unsatisfactory. Conclusions: weaknesses in the city urban planning policy - lack of comfortable housing, high prices for rental housing for newcomers, poor condition of transport infrastructure, low quality of medical and cultural services. Due to the unresolved social problems, part of the population is leaving the city, the demographic situation is deteriorating. The authors analyzed studies on single-industry towns in other regions of the Russian Federation, got acquainted with the proposed models for solving urgent problems, also relying upon foreign experience. Based on the sociological survey results and acquaintance with the developed concepts for the reorganization of single-industry towns, the authors proposed some steps to improve the urban planning policy in the city of Bodaibo