The first housing decree –the anti-eviction decree– includes some measures that are accompanied by compensation and bonuses for landlords and tenants. In fact, this has been and is one of the points of contention in the negotiation with Junts, especially regarding aid to landlords. The economic report of the decree, to which ARA has had access, puts figures to the impact of some of these measures, while others are not quantified. Only between tax deductions and bonuses, the Ministry of Economy estimates a cost of 1.28 billion euros to the public coffers, as government sources have indicated to the ACN.

Urbagestión, the investment fund that owns Maricarmen Abascal's apartment, reached an agreement this Monday with the resident's lawyers so that she can return home. The 87-year-old woman was evicted last week from the apartment where she lived in Madrid's Retiro neighborhood, which has triggered mobilizations throughout the State, an encampment at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, and a race-against-the-clock negotiation between the Spanish government and its investiture partners for an emergency housing decree. Now Maricarmen will have to ratify the agreement, her representatives explained, stating that she will have to pay around 30% of her pension, approximately 500 euros (similar to the amount she was paying until now), in a contract renewed for eight years.

And then, our Homeric protagonist, pursued by judges, chased by the opposition and abandoned by his partners, still had the strength to stand up and proclaim: “And I, Maricarmen, have a message for you: the government is working against the clock to bring the royal decree-law on housing on Tuesday, because it is not a question of ideology, it is a question of humanity”.Audiovisuals have long taught us that there is nothing more exciting than an impossible mission hanging on a life-or-death countdown. It is a matter of hours before the decree is signed. The problem is that Maricarmen is not the title of a series, nor are we citizens mere spectators.Contrary to what the Spanish president says, the issue is one of ideology: if it were only a question of humanity, the problem would already be solved. I certainly believe it is a matter of ideology, from the moment that market laws, the right to housing, the right to property, the anxiety over the end of rental contracts for many tenants, and the savings of not a few small holders collide. If not, why does Pedro Sánchez (like anyone else) find it so hard to square the circle? Bound by his investiture agreements with both the right and the left, he now finds that, unlike the biblical advice, whatever he signs with his right hand will end up being known by his left hand.It is sad, because Maricarmen is not the metonymy of a sudden flood or an unexpected pandemic. For decades, housing has eaten up the good intentions of governments of all colors. This Tuesday's decree will, at most, cushion the blow. But without negotiating, yielding, and abandoning demagoguery, Maricarmen will continue to be treated like a series and not like what it is: the problem of our time.

Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid; Olga, the 54-year-old woman from l'Hospitalet who committed suicide after being evicted... The list is terribly long. Although the total number of judicial evictions is lower than it was a few years ago, it remains a problem, a scourge. And what is most serious is that when a measure has been attempted to be applied, even if temporary –such as the decree to prevent the eviction of vulnerable people–, a group of parties, such as the PP, Vox and Junts, opposed it.

The eviction of Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid is one of those events that mark a stage of Spanish life. It has an enormous symbolic weight, just as in the eighties it was held by Cojo Manteca, a boy with a disability who was then 20 years old and became famous for how he lashed out against street furniture during the student protests that took place in Madrid in 1987. The significance of the current protagonist's appearance on all the news is quite different from that of Jon Manteca Cabañes, who was born in Arrasate in 1967 and died in Orihuela in 1996. However, the images that unite them have many things in common, although the protest was undoubtedly carried out with more dignity by Maricarmen Abascal, because Manteca went down in the country's graphic history striking all kinds of glass and telephone booths with his crutches, when they were a mandatory fixture on city streets.

On Wednesday, Maricarmen Abascal was forced to leave what had been her home for more than seventy years. She left on an emergency stretcher, unable to collect her belongings and exhausted, with high levels of anxiety after having experienced four eviction attempts at the age of 87. Social movements have turned the case of this woman from Madrid into a symbol of the serious housing problem affecting Spain. The Ombudsman has also stated that her story illustrates the shortcomings in the protection of vulnerable people against residential eviction, especially in large cities. This Friday, Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión SL, the fund that owns the property, presented a proposal to the Madrid City Council so that she could return to her apartment. The proposal, however, was rejected by the Madrid city council because "it does not meet the legal requirements" and it has offered to mediate.

It is deeply embarrassing that the eviction of this elderly lady in Madrid was necessary for everyone to suddenly rush to action. Firstly, because it is not serious, and secondly, for those who claim they have been warning us for a long time, because an anti-eviction decree will soften the blow, but it is not the solution to the housing problem.

Yesterday, an 87-year-old woman was evicted from her home because she could not afford the rent increase from 500 to 2,750 euros. Since this eviction happened in Madrid, where the loudspeaker resonates louder –also in Catalonia–, this image of this lady, whose name is Maricarmen, has become the symbol of the wreckage that the real estate market is causing in the lives of thousands of people.Between 7,000 and 8,000 evictions take place in Catalonia every year. The vast majority are due to non-payment of rent (approximately 75%). Everything is legal: there is a law, which the judge applies, with the protection of the police. It is legal, but it is neither ethical nor decent. And this is when all eyes turn towards politics, so that it may correct what we call the abuses of the market. But for decades now, the market has been winning over politics. Here and everywhere else. And there is no need for a dramatic eviction like yesterday's to verify its effects: how many young people cannot emancipate themselves from their parents' house because they cannot afford rent –with the consequent effect that this has on their future expectations, of living as a couple, of starting their own family, of having children–? How many families have had to leave their lifelong neighborhood or city because they cannot afford to live there?The remote and immediate causes of the housing crisis have been long debated. You hear from developers and they point out that there are few building plots, you hear from the real estate sector and it says there is a lack of supply, you hear everyone saying that public housing has not been built, you hear from small landlords and they say they do not want to be treated like large holders, like vulture funds and speculators, and having to carry out, out of their own pockets, the housing policies that governments have not implemented. The problem is that the real estate market is eating away at everyone's life. Do you remember the case of that teacher from Mallorca who worked in Ibiza and every day took a plane to go teach classes in Ibiza because it was more cost-effective to take a plane than to pay rent? Well, that's it.The effects on collective morale, the loss of trust in democracy, and the increase in lack of solidarity are enormous. Here and everywhere. If there is a globalized problem, it is housing. In this context, yesterday Pedro Sánchez took a photo with the mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, which he finished with the following phrase: “The powerful fear us”. It is the type of statement that should be made with actions rather than words, especially when the facts contradict you. A bad day to say “The powerful fear us”, because it is not true. The image of Maricarmen from yesterday is one of great social violence.Yes, politics has its codes, and international alliances are highly sought after, the photo with Mamdani is sought after, but the housing problem surpasses them all, even the political leaders with the greatest social conscience.Good morning

The eviction of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old resident of Madrid who uses a wheelchair, was carried out this Wednesday in the fourth attempt to force her out of her home. Although hundreds of neighbors and members of the Tenants' Union of the Spanish capital had gathered and installed themselves outside the building since Tuesday afternoon, the riot police of the National Police executed the eviction order, which led to moments of great tension: the Union reported the use of "violence" by the police, with blows to the heads of protesters, as well as the use of pepper spray. The property owner, the investment fund Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión S.L., proposed a rent increase to 1,650 euros, which Maricarmen could not afford: she has a pension of 1,350 euros and until now was paying 500 euros in rent, because she had an old rent contract. Despite attempts at negotiation, the fund refused to budge. Now the resident does not know where she will go and, for the moment, the Madrid City Council has assured that it has an "emergency spot" in a nursing home. "It is a social tragedy," stated the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, in a press conference from New York, who directly pointed to the Madrid City Council and the Community of Madrid as responsible for not having prevented this eviction.

This Monday, Sílvia Sanz, a resident of Barcelona's Gràcia neighborhood who had lived right in front of the Fructuós Gelabert School for 13 years, was evicted. She moved in in 2013 with her partner, who was officially on the lease, and when they broke up, he left Barcelona and she stayed in the apartment. Since then, she has been in a state of total administrative helplessness and without access to certain public housing-related benefits because she was unable to get on the contract despite having requested it on numerous occasions. "It's as if I didn't exist," she explains wearily to ARA. This Monday, a large police force executed the eviction order despite Sílvia's willingness to reach an agreement for a negotiated departure.

A new scare related to railway works has caused the precautionary evacuation of about eighty residents of Trinitat Vella, in Barcelona, as reported by La Vanguardia and confirmed by ARA. According to municipal sources, shortly after 3:30 AM this morning, residents of three buildings located at numbers 75-103 of Pérez del Pulgar street, near the area of the collapse in Montcada i Reixac a few days ago, called 112 after noticing vibrations and movements in the buildings. "Everything was moving as if it were a small earthquake. It wasn't a simple vibration," explains Beni, one of the affected residents, who assures that the episode generated concern among the residents.

The eviction of residents from the eight affected blocks is extended due to last Tuesday's sinkhole, caused by the works on metro line L9. The general director of Infrastructure of the Generalitat, Ramon Ramírez, has explained that the technicians have recommended carrying out new checks on the state of the land beneath the buildings where the hole occurred and, for this reason, the residents will not be able to return to their homes at least until Friday of next week. The possibility of them returning this Saturday is thus ruled out.

Dozens of people gathered this Wednesday morning in front of number 3 Farigola street, in the Vallcarca neighborhood of Barcelona, where a family with two minors lives, to try to prevent their eviction. At the same time, up to six riot police vans from the Guàrdia Urbana also arrived at this same point to carry out the eviction, which ended up being carried out around 10 in the morning. A strong police cordon was set up early in the morning. In fact, the first moments of tension were experienced early on, when some of those gathered tried to overcome the police barrier.

Last May, about twenty people were evicted from their homes in the Born neighborhood of Barcelona due to the risk of collapse. The Barcelona Fire Department and the Guàrdia Urbana had to urgently evacuate the residents of the building, located on Sant Agustí Vell street, because of a water leak on the ground floor that had eroded the ground supporting one of the entrance walls of the building. The Catalan Socialist Housing Union assures that the leak occurred during a renovation, but the property, the investment fund New Amsterdam Developers, never repaired it correctly. Even so, neither the fund nor its real estate agency offered any alternative to the families when they had to leave their homes, who, despite not being able to access them, were obliged to pay rent. On the other hand, Barcelona City Council reports that for this property, the Ciutat Vella district has three ongoing cases for unlicensed works.

A new conflict front is opening in the La Mina neighborhood of Sant Adrià de Besòs. This morning, the Mossos d'Esquadra evicted the first three families out of the 58 that are expected to be removed in total from buildings occupied since 2017 on La Mina avenue. More evictions are planned for June 22, 25, and 29; and so on, until the building is emptied. The reason, according to the administration, is that these publicly owned apartments were built to house "the residents of the Venus building, from the same neighborhood,, and are now needed because the demolition of the building — presented as the key piece for the neighborhood's transformation — is finally planned for 2028..

In 2022, the Ministry of the Interior, then led by Esquerra Republicana, approved an internal instruction to try to stop sanctioning with the so-called gag law people who protest peacefully, especially in cases of preventing an eviction. We are talking about situations like sitting on the floor in front of the home, gathering around the residence, protesting by offering peaceful resistance and encouraging other people who are not part of the mobilization to participate, and which until then often ended with a fine for disobedience. Now, however, several entities report that with the new Ministry of the Interior, led by the PSC since the end of 2024, this has changed.

The eviction of a family with four minors in the Cerdanyola neighborhood of Mataró has ended with three teenagers arrested and several charges by the Mossos d'Esquadra to execute the judicial eviction. The events took place early this morning on Gatassa avenue, where, according to the Mossos, about fifty people gathered to prevent police action and threw objects at the police line. The Mossos report throwing cobblestones and stones, for which five officers were slightly injured.

Ivan Giesen is 68 years old and has been living for 27 years in an apartment at number 153 of Ramon Turró street, in Poblenou. In 1999 he moved there after living for a few years in the Gothic Quarter, at a time when the rent price in this more central area began to double. "I was looking for a place and I found this apartment in Poblenou, which, moreover, suited me very well because at that time I was running a language academy in the neighborhood," recounts the resident. In 2019, however, the company Maramca SL – owner of the building since 2012 – began renovation works in the building and notified that it would stop renewing the contract with the residents, including Giesen.

The Public Prosecutor's Office warned that the Badalona City Council failed to fulfill its obligation to provide emergency assistance to the homeless people it evicted from the former B9 high school. Specifically, it lacked a protocol for assisting the homeless through municipal services and also failed to apply the established methodology for such situations, which would have involved offering support to those affected, referring them to available residential resources, and providing follow-up care. In a document signed on March 10, the prosecutor warned the court that authorized the eviction that the council had not acted in accordance with its orders. When endorsing the eviction of the occupants of B9, the judge of the Administrative Court No. 11 of Barcelona specified that, given the vulnerable nature of the situation, it was necessary to take "the measures stipulated in the municipal services' protocol for assisting the homeless and provide them with emergency social assistance." Following this order, Following the eviction, the Public Prosecutor's Office asked the city council to clarify what measures it had taken to protect vulnerable people. who lived in building B9. The City Council's response, as described by the prosecutor, was "a report that essentially states that such a protocol is lacking." The council also pointed out that "they would not be obligated to do so under current legislation, but that they use a methodology for situations involving homelessness, social exclusion, and housing emergencies."

On a vacant lot near the Treball Digne bridge in Barcelona's Sant Andreu district, carts piled high with suitcases, bicycles, and other personal belongings are piled up. The owners have hastily gathered their possessions and remain nearby, sitting silently on the bridge itself or at its ends, or gathered on benches, waiting to find out where they can go for shelter. They are more than a hundred people who lived in two shantytown settlements located on land owned by Adif (the Spanish railway infrastructure manager), which a large contingent of Barcelona's Guardia Urbana (municipal police) and the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) evicted and dispersed this Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. The Barcelona City Council has reported that the operation was prompted by a Fire Department report concluding that there was a "very serious and imminent" risk to the people living in these conditions, leading to the decision to intervene "urgently," as there was a "risk to their lives." According to Barcelona Fire Chief Sebastià Massagué, a fire broke out last weekend in one of the shacks. "The report simply emphasizes the safety of the people and highlights the risk of anyone else being trapped," he said. 126 people were evacuated from the shacks, located on a plot of land in the Sagrera area, four of whom were women, according to Sant Andreu councilor Marta Villanueva. There were no minors among them. The area, with about forty shacks, contained combustible materials, including waste, electrical appliances, tents, propane tanks, portable stoves, and small fires, all of which increased the risk of fire and, therefore, rapid spread. In fact, Massagué said that some people were even sleeping in an electrical substation. "We wanted to prevent further casualties," he explained.