The Arithmetic of Eviction and the Weight of a Life

There is a particular kind of arithmetic that a housing crisis produces—one that measures a pension against a rent increase, a lifetime of work against an eviction notice, a home against a market that no longer recognizes the difference between shelter and asset. In Spain, that arithmetic has produced a woman sleeping in her car, and a country asking how it came to this.

Pilar Lopez spent two months sleeping in her car after being evicted this summer from the apartment in Palma de Mallorca where she had lived for twelve years. Lopez, 65, suffers from a serious chronic condition resulting from a spinal injury. An investment fund bought the property from the bank with which she had a rental contract and offered her money to leave. She refused. She was unable to fight the eviction. She now lives in temporary accommodation in a hostal.

The details of her displacement are intimate and specific. While living in her car, she showered at the beach. She cried, she said, "a lot—and I mean a lot. Crying is how I let it all out". She stands outside her old flat now and can see that it has been refurbished, repurposed, she believes, as a holiday letting.

The catalyst for Spain's current reckoning was not Lopez alone, but the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, removed last week on a stretcher from her home of more than seven decades in Madrid. The images provoked large demonstrations across Spain, with protesters pitching tents in the central Puerta del Sol square outside the Madrid regional government headquarters. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pledged to provide a solution after his cabinet meets on Tuesday.

The structural dimensions of the crisis are not difficult to trace. Spain has struggled to match the rhythm of homebuilding it had before the 2008 financial crisis. The Bank of Spain estimates a deficit of about 750,000 homes, set to grow to more than a million by 2028—almost double that of Italy. The average rental price of €1,176 is equivalent to about 98.7 percent of the average monthly salary, according to the Youth Council of Spain. A law passed during the pandemic to protect vulnerable tenants expired in March after its extension was rejected by opposition parties.

For Lopez, the experience has not been abstract. She has worked and contributed for 40 years in the hotel sector, she says, and now receives a pension of €480 per month. She has been told to leave Mallorca for the mainland, where housing is cheaper. She refuses: "I don't leave this island. I have been here since 1987 and I am as Mallorcan as any Mallorcan".

Tenant advocacy groups are demanding automatic renewal of rental contracts, legal measures to stop evictions, regulation of by-the-room rental contracts, and a rent freeze. They have named their proposed package the "MariCarmen decree". Prime Minister Sanchez faces a significant challenge persuading his ideologically disparate allies in Congress to reach consensus on any decree. For now, Lopez lives in temporary accommodation. The word "temporary" carries its own weight, and its own uncertainty.

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AI Image Disclaimer: All visuals accompanying this article are AI-generated and do not depict the actual individuals mentioned.

Sources: Reuters (via U.S. News & World Report), The Guardian, The Straits Times, Ouest-France