The Administration for Functional Support has reversed its decision and will allow Axel Agnred to remain in his LSS housing. Earlier this year, Gothenburg City decided that Axel Agnred's support needs were no longer extensive enough for housing with special service, according to officials. The administration provides support and services to 9,000 people each year, officials said. According to SVT Väst, Knut Agnred described feeling a huge stone lifted from his body, and according to Göteborgs-Posten, he expressed relief that truth and justice won.
The case has led the administration to review how to handle conflicting principles, officials said. According to Göteborgs stad, Karin Hansson described the situation as prompting a review of individual cases when managing two conflicting principles. The administration previously chose to time-limit most decisions to enable reassessment based on new legal precedents, officials said. According to Göteborgs stad, Karin Hansson explained that time-limiting decisions allowed for reassessment if precedents indicated different outcomes, but noted that housing decisions should not be time-limited as a rule due to their importance. The administration is now reviewing its working methods, officials said. It remains unclear what specific legal precedents or changes in legislation prompted the initial time-limiting of decisions, or how many other individuals have had their LSS housing decisions reversed or are at risk due to similar reassessments.
This situation has made us review how we should handle individual cases when we have two conflicting principles to manage.
The decision was criticized by both municipal politicians and the government, officials said. Pär Gustafsson (L) believes politicians should make the decisions in the future to prevent more people from having their decisions incorrectly withdrawn. Marie Brynolfsson (V) believes the solution lies in adhering only to legal precedents at a minimum level. According to Göteborgs-Posten, Marie Brynolfsson described the administration as not fully working based on its budget mandate. The criteria for determining if someone's support needs are extensive enough for LSS housing are not specified, and the timeline for the administration's review of working methods, including when changes will be implemented, is unknown. The role of SVT's reporting in the reversal of Axel Agnred's case and whether this is standard procedure also remains unclear.
Then the risk of insecurity for the individual increases. Housing is incredibly important for every individual. Therefore, we have needed to review our way of handling these dilemmas, especially when it comes to major interventions like housing. If you have received a decision about such a major intervention, we should as a rule not time-limit it.
We had a need to be able to reassess certain decisions if, for example, precedents showed that we should decide differently. But since we did not have time-limited decisions, we could not do that. Therefore, we previously chose to time-limit most decisions.
Some decisions are therefore difficult to make. It is easy to think that we are mean for not giving the support that relatives and others want us to give. But for us, nothing is more important than giving the right support to those who need it. We provide support and services to 9,000 people each year. But we need to ensure that it is really the right people living in the housing we have. People who can manage their own housing should not take up a spot for the person who needs the spot more.
The driving force for our social secretaries is that they want to provide interventions to those who need them. They do not come to work to give rejections, but to give support. We have a strong humanistic value base that we start from. But we also need to follow laws and precedents.
Personally, it feels like a huge stone has been lifted from my whole body and down. So damn nice not to have to deal with this anymore.
I am so incredibly relieved, truth and justice won.
I think it is clear that the administration has not really started working based on the budget mandate they have received.