Maricarmen, 87, was forced out of her Madrid apartment after a lifetime there. Police cleared activists blocking the door. Officials failed to find her affordable housing. The case shows the limits of tenant protections in Spain.
Police broke down the door of a Madrid apartment this week to evict Maricarmen, an 87-year-old woman with a 50% disability. She had lived there for more than seventy years. The eviction happened in the Retiro district. Activists and neighbors tried to block the entrance, staging a sit-in. Riot police used anti-riot gear and gas to clear them out. The authorities went ahead even though Maricarmen was ill and people were visibly upset as they tried to protect her.
Inside, the mood was tense. Activists held onto the entryway, shouting "Maricarmen se queda" and "This lady could be your grandmother." Police moved in and cleared the area step by step. Maricarmen, reportedly in poor health, had to pack her things quickly as social services entered. The press was ordered out before the final removal.
On the day of the eviction, dozens of people gathered outside Maricarmen's home in Retiro, and police cordoned off the area to accompany the procedure.
The legal fight over Maricarmen's home goes back to a 1956 rental contract signed by her father. It later passed to her mother, then to Maricarmen, under Spain's "renta antigua" system. She paid rent tied to inflation for decades. Things changed in 2018 when Urbagestión bought the building. The new owner tried to raise her rent by 275%. This led to a string of court cases. Maricarmen won in lower courts, but the Supreme Court sided with the investor. That cleared the way for this fourth and final eviction attempt.
Every effort to delay or stop the eviction failed. Maricarmen's lawyer, Beatriz Duro, said the owner rejected all proposals for a delay. They would not even give her a few extra hours to collect her things. Instead, she was told her belongings would be sent to an address she chose after the eviction.
The Sindicato de Inquilinas, which backed Maricarmen throughout, accused authorities of ignoring repeated proposals for a public purchase of the flat or new laws to protect vulnerable tenants. The group said neither the Madrid City Council, the regional government, nor the central government offered a real housing alternative. The only option was a place in a private residence costing over 1,200 euros a month, far more than Maricarmen's pension.
After Urbagestión acquired the building in 2018, the company demanded an increase in Maricarmen's rent from approximately 500 euros to between 1,650 and 2,650 euros per month, according to various sources. The company, founded in 2005, specializes in real estate investment and asset management in Madrid.
Even international attention did not stop the eviction. The United Nations called on Spain to prevent it and guarantee decent housing. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda only urged local and regional authorities to step in. The ministry blamed the city council for not acting on Maricarmen's vulnerability and also criticized the regional government for not offering a rent supplement or other housing.
City officials said social services had followed Maricarmen's case and offered her different types of municipal support, including home help and other places to live. They said she turned these down, wanting to stay in her home. The city also said it sent a vulnerability report to the court in October 2025, pushing back against the ministry's claims of inaction.
Scenes like this are now common in Spain's housing crisis. As reported earlier, authorities have also cleared informal settlements with little warning, leaving people scrambling for shelter. Maricarmen's case stands out because it shows the clash between property rights and the reality for aging tenants with nowhere else to go.
This episode shows how institutions stall and shift blame. While officials argue and activists try to help, people like Maricarmen face the full force of the law. Riot police evicting an elderly woman after seventy years in her home is not just a legal story. It shows how much Spain's housing protections have faded for those least able to fight back.
