Dramatic eviction of woman aged 87 highlights Spain's housing shortage

The eviction of 87‑year‑old Maricarmen from her Madrid apartment has drawn attention to the severity of Spain’s housing shortage. Maricarmen has lived in the Retiro district property for seven decades, originally rented by her father in 1956. She remained the tenant after her parents’ deaths, benefiting from a rent‑control arrangement that kept her monthly payment low. In 2018 the firm Urbagestión acquired the building and invoked a legal loophole to raise her rent from €500 to €2,650. Although the amount was later reduced to €1,650, Maricarmen’s monthly pension of €1,350 leaves her unable to cover the cost. Courts have blocked three earlier eviction attempts, and the ongoing lawsuit has attracted growing media coverage. On Tuesday night supporters gathered outside the building, among them Javier Bardem’s brother Carlos and singer Ana Belén, who recited Rafael Alberti’s poem “Desahucio”. Several hundred people, mostly young people, assembled to prevent the eviction, chanting “Maricarmen stays”. Some activists blocked the interior stairs. In a video posted on social media, a tearful Maricarmen thanked those who had come out to support her against “this cruel conflict by idiosyncratic who wants to gain money”.