Hundreds of people gathered this Wednesday on Alcalde Sainz de Baranda Street, in the Madrid district of Retiro, near the home where the fourth and final attempt to evict Maricarmen, an 87-year-old woman, is planned. Near the building's entrance, a group of activists has organized a sit-in and agents of the National Police have evicted them from the entrance to the building to begin the eviction.
The protesters chant slogans such as 'Maricarmen stays', 'This lady could be your grandmother', 'We're not leaving, we're staying', 'Shame on me being a police officer', 'Shame on me to evict Maricarmen', 'Rentist guilty Responsible government', 'Murderers', 'Out, out' and 'The people united will never be defeated'.
Participating in the protest are MEP Irene Montero and Sumar deputy Enrique Santiago, who regretted that the City Council and the Community of Madrid, responsible for housing, have not offered a solution to an 87-year-old woman who is going to be left homeless.
Maricarmen faces a fourth and final eviction attempt from the house where she has lived for more than seven decades, at number 46 Alcalde Sainz de Baranda Street.
Maricarmen's case has become one of the symbols of the fight for access to housing in Madrid. Maricarmen's father signed a lease contract for that home in 1956. After his death, the contract was subrogated to his wife and would subsequently pass to Maricarmen.
She was subrogated under the same conditions, that is, an income that was updated each year based on the CPI, plus other expenses such as the IBI, for almost 20 years. The document is part of the contracts known as "old rental contracts."
The woman, with a 50% disability, managed to get the courts to agree with her in the first instance but finally the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the investor.
The affected person is facing her fourth eviction attempt since ownership of the building passed to Urba Gestión in 2018, a company that, according to the support groups, tried to increase the tenant's rent by 275%.
The Tenants' Union claims to have conveyed various proposals to the administrations to resolve the conflict, including the public acquisition of housing or legislative reforms that reinforce the stability of rental contracts. However, he reports that he has not received a response to these initiatives.
The organization maintains that neither the Madrid City Council, nor the Community of Madrid, nor the central government have so far offered a housing alternative to Maricarmen, beyond a private residence with a cost of more than 1,200 euros, "an outrage" for the woman's pension.
The organization also recalls that the United Nations has required the Spanish State to adopt measures to prevent eviction and guarantee an adequate housing solution. "Maricarmen is tired but she has the strength to move forward," they point out from this group.
HOUSING URGES CITY COUNCIL AND COMMUNITY TO INTERVENE
For its part, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda has urged the City Council and the Community of Madrid to intervene in the eviction and has supported the United Nations request to provisionally suspend the eviction.
On the one hand, she has criticized the City Council for not having commented on her vulnerable situation "despite having had a request on the table for months", while, on the other hand, she has charged against the Community for not "offering a housing alternative" to the woman or granting her "an income supplement so that she can assume the cost of rent."
In this regard, municipal sources indicate that the City Council's social services maintain continuous monitoring of their situation. "The Ministry of Housing is lying. Municipal social services issued the corresponding vulnerability report in October 2025 at the request of the court," they indicate.
In this sense, they emphasize that the affected person "is a user of different municipal social benefits", such as the home help service. Furthermore, they emphasize that the City Council has made "different accommodation resources" available to them, but that the woman "has expressly expressed her rejection when she has been offered a place."
