Urbagencia Desarrollo e Inversión has proposed “urgently” this Friday to the Madrid City Council to incorporate the apartment on Calle del Alcalde Sainz de Baranda, 46, into the Reviva program, so that Maricarmen can return to the home with a “stable and affordable” rent. The Municipal Housing and Land Company of Madrid (EMVS) has rejected the proposal received this morning, considering it “unviable” because it does not meet the requirements of the program. The council has then offered its Rental Intermediation Service and the representatives of Maricarmen have agreed to meet next Monday at 4:00 p.m. with the owners of the home and the mediators from the municipal company.
“After analyzing [the proposal], it has been determined that it is not viable in the terms proposed, since the inclusion of the home in the Reviva Program does not meet the legal requirements included in the bases of said program, nor in the other home purchase programs,” explains the municipal company in a statement sent to the media.
The Tenants' Union accuses the owners of Urba Gestión of trying to "wash their face" with their proposal after Maricarmen's eviction was carried out, she had to abandon her house and her belongings, and she spent two nights in the hospital. "Today, after seeing what we have caused, of all the scandal that exists around them, their company and what they have done, they are trying to wash their face. Of course we want Maricarmen to return home, she should not have left there," they maintain, and they assure that the company's proposal will not stop the demonstration called for this Saturday or its demand for measures so that "there is not one more Maricarmen."
The offer from Urba Gestión, explains the EMVS, arrived this morning. The company proposed the following: "The objective is to coordinate with the City Council, and where appropriate, with other administrations, a solution that allows Mrs. Maricarmen Abascal to return to housing with a stable and affordable housing alternative. The company makes itself available to the EMVS and the municipal Social Services so that the proposal can be resolved in the shortest possible time." Their main idea was to include the home in the Reviva Plan, that is, to temporarily transfer it to the EMVS and for it to rent it to Maricarmen at an affordable price.
Urba Gestión insisted in its statement that the Retiro apartment, which they once bought for 247,000 euros, was not for sale: "The solution that the company has decided to promote is the proposal that it presents to the City Council today through the Reviva program or the alternative that the City Council or, where appropriate, other Public Administrations could consider more feasible," they added.
The City Council has rejected the Reviva plan option and proposes in its place the Rental Intermediation Service, a program coordinated by the EMVS. The municipal housing company acts as an intermediary between owners, in this case Urba Gestión, and tenants to facilitate the rental of homes between them. Services include: search for tenants or homes, legal advice, drafting contracts, advising on aid and tax benefits or mediation in case of conflict, among others. In addition, it promises that the rental price will not exceed “40% of the net income.”
Urba Gestión also confirms in the statement that it received a purchase proposal from the pianist James Rhodes – “without specifying the amount” – through two emails, but that “when those emails arrived, the launch had already occurred.” Other offers are not mentioned, such as that of a well-known writer, who proposed paying the rent, and other personalities from the world of culture, all of whom were rejected. They also indicate that these three days, the company has received “hundreds of massive emails that saturated its server and made it very difficult to respond to any communication.” 24 hours ago, the company sent another letter to the media in which they denied practically everything published so far regarding Maricarmen's eviction.
Rita Maestre, leader of Más Madrid in the capital, has criticized Urba Gestión's initial proposal to include the Maricarmen apartment in the Reviva plan. “It is simply sadism to subject an elderly woman to the harassment and pressure to which she has been exposed in recent years and to leave her on the street after a violent eviction like the one that all of Spain has seen, and now to want to wash her image like this,” she wrote in her two days ago.
Reyes Maroto, spokesperson for the socialist group in the City Council, has also criticized Urba Gestión's offer and subsequent response from the City Council. "It is unfortunate that, while Maricarmen is still in the hospital, the company that expelled her from her house is trying to wash her image. And Almeida, acting as Almeida: there is a lack of political will to provide solutions. That is her brand," she has published on networks.
