Housing shortage in Spain: “The fight continues, in your name”

Dozens of candles burn in front of number 46 on Alcalde Sainz de Baranda street in Madrid. Residents placed flowers and wrote messages on cardboard boxes: “Thank you for everything, Maricarmen,” it says. Or “The fight continues, in your name.” For more than seven decades, Maricarmen Abascal lived in the six-story, beige-washed building in an inner-city district. At the end of September, the 87-year-old pensioner had to leave her apartment: her old rental agreement had expired and the real estate company that bought the apartment was charging more than three times her previous rent for a new one. Far more than Abascal's pension would allow.