The article presents the results of the study of empirical manifestations of the position of the subject of the territorial community in the context of the socio-psychological approach to the problem of studying the viability of the city. The authors compare the cognitive characteristics of the image of the city and the courtyard in the representations of residents of different ages, with different attitudes to the city as a place of permanent residence. The difference in categories of descriptions of cities and the courtyard community of residents with different social positions (social and passive townspeople) is revealed. Based on the application of the method of repertory grids by J. Kelly, the authors describe the characteristics of the differences between the simplicity / differentiation of the semantic description of the city as a place of permanent residence and the emotional color of descriptors. The revealed differences in the semantics of the yard image among residents of an apartment building confirm these differences when assessing the respondents' safety and comfort conditions in a courtyard community. Empirical data are presented on the features of assessing the states of security and comfort by residents, with different measures of psychological readiness for the position of the subject of interpersonal relations in the courtyard community of a block of flats. The results of the study made it possible to characterize the variability in the perception of the image of the city and the yard by residents with different social positions and to detail the variations of the representations of citizens about the safety and comfort of living in the courtyard of a block of flats typical of the urban community. The greater or lesser degree of territorial identity is the psychological basis of the diversity of social positions of members of the urban and courtyard community. The perspectives of studying the specificity of the image of the city and the yard among residents with different social positions in the urban community are underlined.