The highest administrative court in the Netherlands has upheld a decision by the City of Amsterdam to deny priority housing status to a mother living with three children in a small apartment.
The woman had appealed to the Council of State after her application for urgent status on the local social housing waiting list was refused.
She originally moved into a 32-square-meter, two-room apartment in 2017 with her first child, who was ten months old at the time.
Over the following years, she had two more children, which led to severe overcrowding that she argued caused her sleep disruption and psychological distress.
Strict rules for medical priority
Under local municipal housing regulations, a lack of physical living space does not independently qualify an applicant for priority housing.
The court also ruled that the woman did not meet the criteria for a priority certificate on medical grounds.
Local rules require applicants to have been under active treatment with mental healthcare services or a psychiatrist for at least six continuous months at the time of application.
While the applicant provided documentation of past mental health care, the court found it did not prove a chronic, life-disrupting condition as defined by city policy.
Impact of the housing shortage
In its ruling, the court noted that the severe shortage of social housing forces municipal authorities to apply strict conditions for emergency declarations.
It stated that the housing problem could reasonably have been avoided, as the mother chose to have two additional children while fully aware of her constrained living environment.
The court did agree with the woman on one procedural point, ruling that the city should not have considered her spouse’s lack of local registration.
She had successfully proven with a letter from her divorce lawyer that active divorce proceedings were underway when she submitted her application.
However, that procedural error did not alter the overall decision to uphold the city’s refusal of priority status.
