On 7 May, police in Madrid carried out the fifth eviction attempt against Mariano Ordaz, a 67-year-old pensioner who had lived his entire life in a flat in the Embajadores district. This time, the eviction succeeded. Previous attempts had been halted by local protests, but on this occasion, a large police deployment—eight vans and four patrol cars—ensured the process went ahead. Carolina Vilariño, spokesperson for the Madrid Tenants’ Union, described the scene as excessive: far too many officers to remove a single elderly man from his home.
Ordaz now faces an uncertain future. He expects to stay in a shelter for a few weeks, and a friend has offered him a room for around €400 per month. He has no other housing options.
A Landlord With Vows of Poverty
The owner of the building is the Venerable Third Order of Saint Francis of Assisi (VOT), a religious institution that critics say manages its property portfolio more like an investment fund than a congregation. The order owns more than 300 flats in central Madrid alone. Tenants in VOT properties describe a pattern: rents slightly below market rates in exchange for tenants refurbishing the flats themselves, as the properties were in poor condition. Maintenance of communal areas was neglected, with leaks, broken windows, faulty lights, and rusted pipes.
Ordaz’s case fits this pattern. After the pandemic, he lost his job and could no longer afford rent increases. When the order demanded €800 per month plus an accumulated debt of €15,000, he found it impossible to pay. The order justifies the eviction by citing the need for building repairs. But the Tenants’ Union argues that the building’s deplorable state is due to the order’s own lack of maintenance, and that the deterioration is being used as a pretext to empty the building.
The VOT is not a small landlord. It also manages healthcare facilities, such as the VOT San Francisco de Asís Hospital, and benefits from tax exemptions on its property holdings. This has drawn sharp criticism from housing activists, who see the eviction as emblematic of a broken system.
Political Context: No Moratorium, Rising Evictions
Ordaz’s eviction cannot be understood without the political backdrop. Spain’s anti-eviction moratorium expired in Congress on 26 February after right-wing parties voted against its extension. The Tenants’ Union warns that this repeal leaves vulnerable families without protection, potentially opening the door to up to 60,000 evictions across the country. The union holds multiple levels of government responsible: the Government Delegation, the central government for failing to repeal the Gag Law, the Housing Minister, the Community of Madrid, and Madrid City Council.
A demonstration has been called in Madrid on 24 May under the slogan “Housing is costing us our lives. Let’s bring prices down,” starting from Atocha at 12:00.
Madrid’s Strained Housing Market
Ordaz’s eviction is not an isolated incident. Spain’s rental market has seen 44 consecutive months of year-on-year increases, a streak beginning in March 2022. Since then, prices have soared by 33%, pushing more families out of the market. In Madrid’s central district, rents have risen 21% in just one year, with prices rarely falling below €2,000 per month. That a religious order with hundreds of flats in the city centre chooses to raise rents to unaffordable levels and then uses the courts to evict tenants gives the case a significance beyond a simple landlord-tenant dispute.
The broader housing crisis is driven by stagnant wages, a tourism boom, and population growth in cities, fueled by immigration. These factors have tightened supply and driven up prices, leaving many Spaniards unable to afford a home despite the country’s recent economic upswing. The situation has sparked widespread protests and calls for policy changes, including rent controls and increased social housing.
This case also highlights the tension between religious institutions’ charitable missions and their property management practices. The Franciscan order, which preaches poverty, is now at the center of a controversy that questions its role as a landlord. As the housing crisis deepens, stories like Ordaz’s are likely to become more common, putting pressure on governments to act.
