87-Year-Old Madrid Woman Forcibly Evicted After 70 Years — Now Set to Return Home

María del Carmen Abascal — known widely in Spanish coverage simply as “Maricarmen” — is an 87-year-old retired Madrid woman who was forcibly evicted from the apartment she had lived in for roughly 70 years, and who has since agreed to a deal that would let her move back home. The eviction, carried out by police in Madrid’s Retiro district on Wednesday, 23 September 2026, was filmed by neighbors and became a national flashpoint over Spain’s housing crisis. As of this writing, Abascal has accepted a new rental agreement but had not yet physically returned to the apartment.

Who is María del Carmen Abascal?

She is a private, retired woman with no public profile before this dispute, who had lived in the same rented apartment since 1956. Her father first rented the unit in Madrid’s Retiro district in the mid-1950s, and Abascal inherited the tenancy after her parents died, continuing to live there on her pension for decades afterward. She became internationally known only because of the eviction fight, not by any choice of her own, and coverage of her case has stuck closely to the facts of the housing dispute rather than her personal life.

Why was she evicted after seven decades in the same apartment?

She was evicted because she could no longer afford the rent after her building’s new owner raised it far beyond what her pension could cover. The building changed hands in 2018, when investment fund Urbagestión acquired it. Abascal was offered the chance to buy her unit outright but could not afford it. Her rent, long capped near €500 a month under her older-style lease, was raised to €2,650 — more than five times her previous payment — then later reduced to €1,650. Even the reduced figure remained unaffordable on her pension, and the fund proceeded with eviction.

When and how did the eviction happen?

Police broke down her door and removed her from the apartment on Wednesday, 23 September 2026. She was carried out on a stretcher as a crowd gathered outside, and the scene was captured on video that quickly spread. She was hospitalized afterward, reported as being treated for exhaustion. Two days later, on 25 September, Madrid’s city council rejected an emergency proposal from Urbagestión that would have let her return to the apartment immediately — a separate development from the eviction itself, and the likely source of some confusion in early reports over the exact eviction date.

How did the public respond?

The eviction set off protests in multiple Spanish cities over the country’s broader housing affordability crisis. Demonstrations spread beyond Madrid in the days that followed, and a large march through central Madrid on Saturday, 26 September 2026, drew a crowd that government estimates put in the tens of thousands, while march organizers said turnout was considerably higher — the two sides’ figures diverged sharply, and neither has been independently reconciled. A protest encampment subsequently grew in central Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square. In the following days, Spain’s national government said it had agreed on a package of proposed housing-crisis measures, including a temporary ban on evictions — though as of this writing these remained proposals rather than enacted law.

What is the deal that would let her return home?

Her lawyer announced on Monday, 28 September 2026, that Abascal had accepted a new eight-year rental contract capping her rent at roughly 30% of her income. The agreement, reached after several hours of negotiation mediated by Madrid’s municipal housing and land company (EMVS), would put her monthly rent back around the roughly €500 she paid before 2018. EMVS also said it would provide Abascal with ongoing legal, tax, and financial advisory support during the new lease term.

Has she actually returned home yet?

Not yet, as of the most recent reports. Abascal remained hospitalized and had not been present for the negotiation session herself; her legal team relayed the agreed terms to her afterward. She has agreed to the deal in principle, but her physical return to the apartment and her final signature on the contract were both still pending discharge from the hospital. Coverage as of this writing describes her as set to return home once she is medically cleared to leave — not as having already done so.

What happens next?

Abascal’s case became a rallying point in a housing debate that stretches well beyond one Madrid apartment, and it is still moving: her discharge, her signature on the new lease, and the fate of the government’s proposed eviction-ban measures were all unresolved as this was written. We’ll update this story once her return home and the signed contract are confirmed.