The dramatic eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her home in Madrid, where she had lived for seven decades, has drawn attention to the depth of Spain's housing crisis. Maricarmen was forced out of her flat in the Retiro area of central Madrid on Wednesday after being unable to pay the rent set by the investment firm that owns the property.
Maricarmen's father first rented the property in 1956, and she continued as the tenant after her parents died, during which time there was a cap on the rent. However, the company that bought the property in 2018, Urbagestión, cited a legal glitch allowing it to raise her rent from €500 to €2,650. It subsequently lowered the new rent to €1,650, but Maricarmen was still unable to pay it with her monthly pension of €1,350.
Three previous attempts to evict her were blocked by the courts, and the case has received increasing media attention. Supporters of Maricarmen camped outside the building on Tuesday night, joined by celebrities including Javier Bardem's brother, Carlos, and the singer Ana Belén, who read out the poem Desahucio (Eviction) by Rafael Alberti. Several hundred people, mostly youngsters, gathered by the morning to prevent the eviction, chanting "Maricarmen stays". Some activists blocked the stairs inside the building.
Police cordoned off a section of the street and removed people from the entrance, including media, striking some protesters with batons. A representative of tenants' organisation Sindicato de Inquilinas shouted through a megaphone: "Think for 10 seconds about Maricarmen, who could be your own grandmother." Beatriz Duro, Maricarmen's lawyer, said: "There is a police deployment as if this were a military operation. This is the fourth time they've tried to evict her but the first time they've come right to the door. It's completely disproportionate."
In June, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights called for the eviction to be halted and for Maricarmen to be offered affordable alternative accommodation. The local government said she had declined its offer of a place in an elderly care home. The central government said Urbagestión had refused its repeated attempts to negotiate. An anonymous donor offered to pay most of her rent, but Urbagestión reportedly rejected the offer and the eviction went ahead.
Housing Minister Teresa Rodríguez said: "Today is a very sad day, a very dramatic day, when it's plain to see the effects of unbridled speculation, of not wanting to control the market, of putting out the red carpet for the vultures and the speculators." A shortage of available housing has been blamed for soaring rental costs in recent years, leaving millions of Spaniards struggling to find affordable homes. In Madrid, rentals have increased by more than 100% over the last decade, according to property site Idealista, with a 10% rise over the last year. The Socialist-led government of Pedro Sánchez has frequently targeted companies whose investment pushes up housing costs, but critics say it needs to build more homes and that its rhetoric discourages owners from renting out properties.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk