A legal change that came into effect in April 2024 requires women's shelters to obtain a permit from the Inspectorate for Care and Social Services (IVO). The purpose of the legal change was to stop unprofessional actors and increase quality, according to official sources. The consequence has also been that voluntarily run shelters are affected, officials stated.
Twenty shelters within the women's shelter organization Roks and an additional 17 within Unizon have been closed since the legal change, according to official figures. Major media reports indicate that 37 women's shelters have been forced to close since the legal change two years ago. Preliminary figures from IVO show that the proportion of voluntary protected shelters is lower among operations that have so far received permits; out of about 76 operations, 33 are voluntary and 43 are private, according to major media reports.
It remains unclear how many women and children have been directly affected by these closures or what alternative support is available for those displaced. The government states that the same requirements must apply to all protected shelters, regardless of whether they are run voluntarily or privately, Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson Grönvall told major media. The purpose is to ensure that women exposed to violence receive support of the same quality, the government said.
Operations that want to meet the new requirements can apply for state support, according to Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson Grönvall. The government is not averse to adjusting legislation based on an ongoing investigation from the Swedish Agency for Public Management, Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson Grönvall told major media. The investigation from the Swedish Agency for Public Management will be partially reported on May 29, 2026, and fully reported in December 2027.
Specific criteria used by IVO to reject permit applications from voluntary shelters have not been disclosed, and the total number of shelter applications processed since the legal change remains unknown. Critics argue that the changes hit hard against voluntary shelters and the women who need their support, according to major media reports. The national organization for women's shelters and girls' shelters in Sweden, Roks, believes that the new requirements risk making it harder for women exposed to violence to seek help.
The situation is acute and there is no time to wait, according to Roks.