Housing crisis linked to deaths and mental-health decline in Spain

Demonstrators chanting that Maricarmen Abascal was murdered after being evicted argue that the lengthy removal process harmed her health, leading to her death in a Madrid hospital. Her case joins others, such as Olga Matute’s suicide five months after being expelled from her home and multiple earlier incidents in Catalonia and Cantabria linked to evictions. Research titled “Habitar la incertidumbre” by Oxfam Intermón finds that people who allocate more than 50 % of income to housing experience twice the rate of mental-health issues compared with those spending less than 30 %.

The Spanish Society of Epidemiology calls the housing shortage a public-health crisis, and the health minister, Mónica García, has connected housing instability to worsening health outcomes. Psychologists report that families often sacrifice medication, food, heating or utilities to meet rent, which further damages physical health and social participation.