Herminia, 76, sleeps in a park because no landlord will rent to vulnerable tenants

Herminia, 76: a week sleeping in a wheelchair in a Valencia park

On the night of 19 June, police evicted Herminia, 76, who has mobility problems, from the flat she had lived in for three years, 50 metres from the park. Since then, she and her family — her 81-year-old husband with a broken elbow, their 51-year-old son and their 41-year-old daughter with a disability of over 70% — have been sleeping outdoors. She sleeps in her wheelchair; her daughter, on the slide platform.

Income that doesn't cover a roof in Valencia
The family receives three indefinite state benefits. Adding non-contributory pensions and disability allowances, their monthly income is around 1,500-2,000 euros. With that money, they could rent for 400-700 euros in a village in inland Castellón or Teruel and live comfortably. But they won't leave. The explanation they give is that their furniture is in a storage unit in the neighbourhood and that their roots matter. Another, less admissible reason: Valencia's rental market, strained by tourist demand, offers them nothing affordable.

The limbo of vulnerable tenants
The family has been granted vulnerable status, a legal category that protects their payments but, paradoxically, pushes them out of the market. No owner wants to risk a protected tenant: if they stop paying, eviction can drag on for years. The result is that nobody rents to them. "The state gives them three benefits and they're protected; they could move to a village and pay 500-700 euros, but they don't want to," sums up one line of analysis that blames a lack of foresight. Against it, the opposing view argues the problem is systemic: "Vulnerable status is necessary, but unless the state guarantees payment to the landlord, the circle closes."

The gap between rhetoric and action
Herminia's story divides those who see an individual failure from those who denounce a collective one. The former point out that the family's income is enough for a modest life in the countryside; the latter reply that housing in Valencia has become an unaffordable luxury even for those with benefits. Meanwhile, she says the nights feel "endless" and that the mattress her son brought barely eases her bones. Nobody disputes that the solution lies in something nobody does: having the treasury cover 75% of the rent for landlords who accept tenants like her. But that would require political will and spending no government seems willing to take on.

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