Spain announces plan to ease housing crisis amid outcry over eviction of 87-year-old

Spain’s Socialist Workers’ party-led coalition government has approved a range of measures aimed at easing the country’s housing crisis, including extending a ban on evictions of vulnerable tenants until 2030, after a public outcry over the eviction of an 87-year-old disabled woman from her Madrid apartment last week.Two decrees have been approved by cabinet but will need to be approved in Congress, where the coalition lacks a majority. The government has requested a special parliamentary session on Friday in the hope of getting the decrees passed as soon as possible.Although the fine print has yet be revealed, the main decree includes: extending restrictions on evictions of vulnerable tenants to 2030; regulating temporary lettings and lettings by room; a ban on so-called vulture funds buying property until 2028, plus a two-year extension on current rental agreements that are due to expire at the end of 2028.A separate agreement was reached on the automatic renovation of rental agreements.Maricarmen Abascal attends an event organised by housing activists the day before her scheduled eviction from her home in Madrid. Photograph: David Canales/SOPA Images/ShutterstockMaricarmen Abascal, 87, is transported on a stretcher to an ambulance after she was evicted from her Madrid home on Wednesday. Photograph: Susana Vera/ReutersHundreds of people remained camped out in ⁠one of Madrid’s main squares on Tuesday to protest against Maricarmen Abascal’s removal from her home on a stretcher last Wednesday. They are demanding legal reforms including a rent freeze and the ⁠automatic renewal of leases without abusive rent hikes.It is believed that the first decree has the approval of the conservative Catalan and Basque parties, which previously opposed the government’s housing overhauls, but they are likely to vote down the second decree.Mónica García, the health minister, celebrated the decision, saying: “We’ve achieved something that even a month ago was unthinkable.”She added: “It’s time to intervene in the speculative housing market and begin to restore the balance between citizens and vulture funds.”The Tenants’ Union, which has been the driving force behind the demand for changes to the housing law, as well as the occupation of Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol by protesters in recent days, said it needed to read the small print but opposed the policy of dividing the issue into separate decrees.“It’s a tactic of tearing something into shreds so that all that’s left are scraps,” said Alicia Del Río, a union spokesperson in Madrid. “The union demands the implementation of the Maricarmen decree in its entirety,” she said, referring to a set of changes drawn up by the union. “They have to accept what people are demanding.”Protesters clash with police near the Puerta del Sol encampment in Madrid. Photograph: Ignacio Lopez Isasmendi/Zuma Press Wire/ShutterstockThe government has 30 days from the decree’s publication to reach a consensus with allies in Congress. Junts, the Catalan pro-independence party that would need to back the decree for it to pass, said on Tuesday it was still far from agreeing to ‌it and wanted protection for small landlords, who make up the vast majority of property owners in Spain.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Owning two properties isn’t the same as owning entire buildings,” said Míriam Nogueras, Junts’ spokesperson in Congress. “But here they’re not making any distinction between the two.”Housing rights protesters remain camped at Puerta del Sol in Madrid Photograph: Mario Mor ³N/JNA/ZUMA Press Wire/ShutterstockAlberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the conservative People’s party, dismissed the proposals. “The government has created a problem that didn’t exist when it took office,” he said. “A problem that was created over eight years can’t be solved in five minutes.”Urbagestión, the company whose eviction of Abascal last Wednesday forced the housing crisis to the top of the political agenda, has said Abascal can return to her apartment at a rent that will not exceed 30% of her income. On Tuesday, she accepted the offer and will pay €533 (£457) a month – less than a third of the original demand of €1,650 that had led to her eviction.A protester in the encampment at Puerta del Sol. The government has 30 days from the decree’s publication to reach a consensus with allies in Congress. Photograph: Ignacio Lopez Isasmendi/Zuma Press Wire/ShutterstockUnderlining the lack of affordable housing, Ada Colau, a housing activist and a former Barcelona mayor, recently revealed that she has had to move out of her rented apartment after 15 years because it became impossible to pay the rent with a single income since she separated from her husband.Colau, who renounced most of her mayoral salary during her eight years in office, said the market was geared towards dual incomes, whether couples or people sharing, adding that she had gone to live with a relative.