Maricarmen is 87 years old and has a recognized 50% disability.
Her father signed the contract for that home in 1956, on Alcalde Sainz de Baranda Street, in Madrid. It passed to her mother, and then to her. Seventy years of life under the same roof, until in 2018 the building changed owners: the Urbagestión fund. They tried to raise her rent from 500 to 2.650 euros a month, an increase of 275%. The courts ruled in her favor at first instance. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the fund.
It was her fourth eviction attempt. This time, they succeeded. Hundreds of people slept outdoors in the early hours of September 23 to try to prevent it, and came up against more than a dozen police vehicles and moments of tension. Her lawyer negotiated for an hour with the judicial commission and the property owners, without success: she alleges that they did not even give her time to collect her belongings.
Neither the City Council, nor the Community of Madrid, nor the central government offered her public housing. Only a private, paid residence. At 87, Maricarmen had to leave the only home she had ever known.
