Madrid City Council rejects Urbagestión's proposal for Maricarmen to return home as "unviable" and will limit itself to mediating

The Madrid City Council has rejected this Friday the proposal presented by Urbagestión for Maricarmen to return to the flat from which she was evicted. The Municipal Housing and Land Company (EMVS) considers it "unviable" to incorporate the property into the Reviva program and also rules out that it could fit into its municipal purchase programs.

The owning company had offered to make the home available to the EMVS so that the public body could manage a "stable and affordable" rent for Maricarmen. The formula allowed Urbagestión to retain ownership of the flat and benefit from municipal guarantees while the 87-year-old woman returned to the house where she had lived since 1956.

"After analyzing it, its unviability in the terms proposed has been determined," the City Council responded. The municipal government assures that the offer fails to meet the legal requirements of the Reviva program and the municipal housing acquisition channels, but has not publicly explained what specific condition prevents its application nor has it presented another solution for Maricarmen to return home.

The Consistory now offers its Rental Intermediation Service. Maricarmen's representatives have agreed to participate next Monday, September 28, at 4:00 p.m., in a meeting with the flat owners and the professionals of the municipal company. An assumable rent, the duration of the contract, and the guarantees required by Urbagestión will have to be agreed upon.

The mediation once again places the solution in the hands of a negotiation with the same company that promoted the eviction. For now, Maricarmen remains hospitalized at Gregorio Marañón Hospital and lacks a date to return to the home, a new rental contract, and a suitable housing alternative.

A proposal that comes after the eviction

Urbagestión presented its offer two days after the National Police removed Maricarmen on a stretcher and handed over the flat to the property. The company now maintains that it wants to resolve the case "as soon as possible," after the conversations promoted in previous weeks did not prevent the eviction.

The Ministry of Housing assures that it offered to buy the property through the public company Casa 47 and that the property stopped responding. Urbagestión denies having received a formal acquisition offer, although it acknowledges that a rental of 900 euros, paid jointly by Maricarmen and the public body, was proposed. It also received emails from pianist James Rhodes to buy the house, in addition to an offer from a writer who was willing to cover the rent.

The company insists that the apartment, acquired at the time for 247,000 euros, is not for sale. Its proposal to the City Council was to retain ownership and join a program that guarantees the owner the collection of a monthly rent, even when the home does not yet have an assigned tenant. The EMVS can also cover insurance, repairs, community expenses, the Property Tax (IBI), and the garbage collection fee.

The City Council had defended that its social services offered help to Maricarmen before the eviction. The Tenants' Union denounced that one of the alternatives consisted of a residence located in Alcalá de Henares with a cost close to 1,200 euros per month, practically the entire pension of the affected person. Maricarmen then assured that no administration had directly approached her with a viable proposal.

Monday's meeting will be the first formal contact between the property and Maricarmen's representatives since Urbagestión announced its change of position. Until that meeting, the City Council keeps the Reviva route ruled out and leaves any return to the apartment pending the company accepting a rent that the woman can afford.