Since November 2019, Uppsala Municipality has stopped paying financial assistance to people living on illegal second-hand contracts - in an attempt to counter black rents.
But the approach is criticized by experts, who believe that there is no legal support for working in this way.
- There is no support in either legislation or practice.
You can not make decisions that do not have any kind of support in the legal system, says Rebecca Sundström, a lawyer at Wallin Advokatbyrå in Uppsala who conducted an investigation of the issue - but also worked at the social services in Uppsala.
She is supported by Olle Lundin, professor of administrative law at Uppsala University.
- The Social Services Act stipulates a right to receive help from the municipality when it is difficult.
It really does not matter how you feel otherwise, if you may be living illegally.
And it is not the case that we can leave these people in the lurch, that space does not exist in the Social Services Act, he says.
130 municipalities
But Uppsala municipality is not alone.
A unique survey by SVT Uppsala shows that 130 municipalities in the country do the same.
The issue has been tried in several courts with different outcomes, but in a preliminary ruling from 2009, the Supreme Administrative Court, now the Supreme Administrative Court, states that an unauthorized residence is not reason enough to refuse maintenance support.
The National Board of Health and Welfare also refers to this outcome in its municipal handbook on financial assistance.
The tenants' association believes that the approach also does not have the desired effect if the goal is to access criminal landlords.
- Unfortunately, I think this is mostly a blow in the air, it will not solve the problem in the long run.
It hits individual residents very hard.
They become homeless at the same time as those who rent out black only rent to someone else, says Martin Hansson, lawyer at HFG.
Rather, the approach risks affecting already vulnerable households, several of which are families with children, SVT's survey shows.
Families that SVT spoke to testify that their situation became even more difficult after the municipality's rejection.
"Bigger problem"
Municipal councilor Mohamad Hassan (L), who has pushed the issue in Uppsala, believes, however, that the municipality has chosen the right path in this issue.
- Lifting a case with a single mother can be heartbreaking, but we must not forget the bigger problem we have to access: black contracts, he says.
Hassan wants the Social Services Act to be clearer on the issue of black contracts.
- We are prepared to court the Riksdag to change the legislation - that they clearly say that we must accept all types of contracts or that we must fight crime.
Boverket: Write about the law
However, the tenants' association believes that this argument does not hold.
- A municipality must apply legislation, not try new legislation, says Martin Hansson, lawyer at the Tenants' Association.
But according to the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, it is necessary to refuse assistance to people with unauthorized leases in order to curb the black housing market.
However, the authority agrees that the legal situation is unclear.
- If you want to deal with black contracts, the law should be rewritten.
It is actually completely unreasonable that the social services support this illegal trade in apartments, says Micael Nilsson, the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning's expert on social housing issues.
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The National Board of Housing, Building and Planning: No one could imagine this Photo: Adam Ihse / TT / Press image