Sitchting GOUD sends letter to municipality of Utrecht about outdoor sleeping fines for homeless people

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April 16, 2025
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Stichting GOUD sends letter to municipality of Utrecht about outdoor sleeping fines

Stichting GOUD has formally requested a meeting with the Utrecht municipality today through a letter about stopping fining homeless people who are forced to sleep on the streets. The letter points out to the municipality that this practice, based on article 2:31 of the General Local By-Law (APV), is unlawful and violates fundamental human rights. Article 2:31 of the APV prohibits lying or sleeping on or near a public place. 

Article 2:31 of the General Local By-Law (APV)

Stichting GOUD represents the interests of homeless people in Utrecht. For a while now, Stichting GOUD has been calling the attention of the municipality of Utrecht to the consequences of these fines for homeless people. In January 2025, the city council voted on scrapping article 2:31 APV, but there was one vote short for a majority. The Foundation is now urging the municipality to reconsider this decision. 

Homeless people are fined for sleeping outside even though they often have no other place to stay. For many people, there is no place in shelters. This makes sleeping on the streets a matter of survival. These fines are criminalising, stigmatising, and do not work. More than that, fines actually harm homeless people. Often, fines are not collected until someone has finally found a permanent place to live or stay. These can then quickly add up to thousands of euros through reminders and increases, putting people back in trouble. 

The letter states that Article 2:31 of the APV violates fundamental human rights, including the right to humane treatment and the right to adequate housing. The municipality of Utrecht has a duty to guarantee these rights. According to Stichting GOUD, the municipality is therefore acting unlawfully. 

Structural solutions

Stichting GOUD advocates structural solutions instead of punishment. “What people need is a home and appropriate support,” stresses advocate Moreno Van Hulst. “In the absence of that, at the very least, unconditional access to quality shelter should be arranged. If you really want to get people in, invest in relationship and trust, not fines and coercion. After all, this simply does not help. Indeed, it only creates more problems.” 

The foundation has asked the municipality of Utrecht to respond to the request for consultation within two weeks. In the meantime, Stichting GOUD asks the municipality not to take enforcement action and to waive fines already imposed. 

PILP is assisting Stichting GOUD together with lawyers from De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. 

See Stichting GOUD’s press release (in Dutch) here.

Read the letter to the municipality of Utrecht (in Dutch) here.

The image above is provided by Kansfonds.

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