Maricarmen Abascal dies before returning home, becoming housing crisis symbol

Maria del Carmen Abascal, known as Maricarmen, the 87-year-old resident of Madrid's Retiro district evicted on September 23, has died without returning to the home she had fought over for decades. Her case, which became a symbol of the housing crisis, triggered demonstrations across Spain.

Maricarmen died without going back home. Maria del Carmen Abascal, the **87-year-old** neighbor from Madrid's **Retiro** neighborhood who became the face of the fight against the housing crisis, passed away on Wednesday, **October 7, 2026**, according to her circle. She had been hospitalized since **September 23**, the day police removed her from her apartment and took her out on a stretcher en route to **Gregorio Marañón Hospital**. She had a home to return to. She never made it.

## A 1956 contract and four eviction attempts

Maricarmen's story is, in reality, the story of a document signed nearly seventy years ago. Her father signed the rental contract for the property in **1956**. Her mother inherited it in **1960**. She did so in **2005**. Three generations, one apartment, an old rent that survived changes in tenancy laws and a real estate operation in the building.

The conflict erupted when the owner, held by the fund **Urbagestión**, challenged the second inheritance of the contract. Maricarmen won at first instance. The **Provincial Court** later overturned that decision and upheld the company's claim, authorizing the eviction. It was carried out on **September 23**, on the fourth attempt. Hundreds gathered to try to stop it. They failed.

## An agreement that came too late

After the eviction, mediation by the **Madrid City Council** secured an agreement with Urbagestión allowing Maricarmen to return home. The deal existed. The return was on the table. But she remained hospitalized, and time ran out before she could cross the threshold again.

The **Madrid Tenants' Union** lamented her death in a statement, emphasizing that the solution came "too late," trinc a process they describe as "torturous" and "absolutely avoidable." The organization argues that Maricarmen's case marked a "before and after" in the public debate on housing, although it adds that the cost of getting here "has been too high."

## From an eviction to a national movement

The image of an 87-year-old woman leaving her home on a stretcher swept through Spain within hours. What began as a legal dispute over an old rent contract transformed into a social trigger. Protests, encampments in several cities, decrees falling in **Congress** that precipitated a call for general elections. Housing moved to the center of political debate with a force it hadn't seen in years.

The union recalled one of the phrases that, according to them, Maricarmen repeated: "Fight, keep fighting for what is yours." And they assured that they will continue defending the right to housing "with the strength and courage" that, they say, she taught them. Her case no longer belongs only to her. But she could not go back home.