A 94-year-old widow in Florence is facing the loss of the home she has occupied for more than six decades after her landlord informed her family that her rent would rise from €450 to €1,200 a month. The woman, identified only as Franca, has lived in the 70-square-metre flat since the early 1960s. Her contract expires in February, and her daughter says she will be unable to renew it on the new terms.
The case has drawn comparisons with that of María del Carmen Abascal, known as Maricarmen, the 87-year-old Madrid pensioner whose eviction after a steep rent increase turned her into a symbol of Spain's housing crisis. Maricarmen died in hospital days after being forced from her home, prompting protests in the Spanish capital. Her story was widely covered, including in coverage of Madrid's housing protests.
A lifetime in one flat
Franca's daughter, who asked not to be named because she has not yet told her mother about the eviction, described the flat as the only place the elderly woman feels truly at home. It is filled with photographs of grandchildren, paintings of Florence's narrow streets and mementoes from her daughter's wedding. Franca lived there with her husband, and her daughter was born in the flat.
"My mother gets a minimum pension and my father's survivor's pension. If she had to pay €1,200 in rent, she would be left with practically nothing to live on, not even enough to eat," the daughter told Corriere Fiorentino.
The building contains several flats, all owned by the same landlord. It was once home mainly to Florentine families, many of whom had lived there for generations, but the tenant mix has changed over the years. According to the daughter, the flats are not being converted into holiday lets and remain ordinary residential tenancies. She believes, however, that the new management is seeking far higher returns from the properties.
"They phoned me to tell me they would not renew the contract for my mother. The contract was renewed every two years. They let me know that, for her to stay there, the rent would have to go up to €1,200 a month. But how can you ask for that kind of money from a 94-year-old pensioner?"
The family accepts that rents cannot remain frozen indefinitely, and the daughter says she would help cover a modest increase so her mother could spend her final years at home. "We could manage a small increase, I could help her out. But going from €450 to €1,200 is something else altogether. It is an impossible amount. And what pains me is that there was not even any chance to open a proper negotiation, to try to meet halfway," she said.
Housing pressures across southern Europe
Franca's plight reflects a broader squeeze on older tenants in European cities where property values and rents have climbed sharply. In Spain, the death of Maricarmen Abascal became a rallying point for housing activists, and her case continues to be invoked in debates over rent regulation and tenant protections. The aftermath of Maricarmen's eviction highlighted how quickly a single rent increase can upend the life of a pensioner living on a fixed income.
Italy has its own patchwork of rent laws and a chronic shortage of affordable housing in tourist-heavy cities such as Florence, Venice and Rome. Long-term residents in central neighbourhoods often find themselves competing with short-term rental markets and wealthier newcomers, even when their buildings are not formally converted to holiday lets.
The daughter has turned to the tenants' union Sunia for assistance. It remains unclear whether the landlord will negotiate or whether Franca will be forced to leave the flat she has known for most of her life. For now, her family is grappling with how—and when—to tell her that the home she loves may no longer be hers.
