A court has told Amsterdam it cannot put a man out of sheltered housing over an expired residence permit until it finds him somewhere else
A judge in Amsterdam has ruled that the city may not remove a man from sheltered accommodation because his residence permit has lapsed, unless it arranges somewhere else for him to live first. The man came from Ghana in 2009 to work in the meat industry and has lived in a shelter in Amsterdam for seventeen years. The municipal organisation that runs the accommodation wanted him to leave immediately, on the grounds that this form of supported housing is not intended for people without papers.
He does not dispute that the permit expired. His lawyer explained in court that it happened during a period when he was suffering from psychoses; he became unfit for work and his marriage broke down, and the renewal was never filed. The judge turned to the organisation's representatives and asked why nobody who was supervising his medication had also helped him with the paperwork.
On the law itself the judge agreed with the city: without a valid permit he has no entitlement to this type of housing. But she reached the same conclusion as another judge did last autumn — that the municipality must secure alternative accommodation before anyone is put on the street. Responsibility rests with the city's executive, who were the defendants in the case.
There is a wider point in the ruling for anyone in a similar position. A lapsed permit does not by itself give a municipality the right to end someone's housing on the spot, and that principle has now been upheld twice in the same case. The man had been offered a move to a different facility but did not regard it as a solution, saying he feared that once inside that system he would never obtain a permit again. The organisation, for its part, takes the view that he needs a lower level of care than the accommodation provides, while others are on a waiting list for it. If your own permit has expired while you are in supported housing, the practical step is to get legal advice quickly and to put the renewal in motion, because the protection the court described is about the manner of removal, not a right to stay indefinitely.