Residents of Calle Tribulete 7 in Madrid have turned their apartment block into a stage for resistance after an investment fund purchased their building. Facing rent increases and aggressive construction works, they organized meetings, contacted the tenants' union, and found a lawyer. But they also opened their homes to the public for concerts and moved their furniture onto the street for performances of everyday life, cooking, knitting, and playing chess in dressing gowns while a local band played.
New tactics in Spain's housing crisis
Since the 2008 financial crisis, Spanish housing activists have shifted focus from bank mortgage loans to investment funds like Blackstone buying entire residential buildings. The media framing has evolved too, with photographers like Olmo Calvo and Alberto Astudillo documenting brutal evictions, but a new style celebrates community under threat to inspire mobilization.
Documentary film-makers Leah Pattem and Elisa González spent two years in Lavapiés, witnessing the emergence of a new social movement. The tenants of Tribulete 7 represent a cross-section of Lavapiés society: young families, pensioners, single women, migrants, teachers, healthcare workers, writers, actors, and musicians. They used their social and cultural capital to turn their building into a stage broadcast on every news channel.
Cultural resistance and legal battles
Nani, a second-floor resident, runs El Elemento, a DJ collective for people with disabilities. Her performer DJ Jessy played at the first musical protest in a now-closed shoe shop. Nani fears for the group's future if forced out. Madrid city council champions local culture but ignores the housing crisis destroying it.
Critics say Madrid's planning reforms, presented as regulating tourist accommodation, make it easier to convert residential buildings into tourist rentals with a simple licence change. Lavapiés already has one of the highest concentrations of unlicensed tourist rentals, and the situation may worsen. The first building to fall victim to this conversion scheme is near Tribulete 7.
The residents filed what could be Spain's first successful lawsuit against an investment fund for alleged real estate harassment, though the owners reject the claims. Beyond the legal fight, the tenants have brought the entire neighbourhood together, giving people purpose and joy amid Europe's aggressive housing crisis.
Pattem and González organized free community screenings of their documentary Soy Tribulete 7. One favourite screening was with DJ Jessy at Club 33, where the neighbourhood danced. Pattem notes that culture is not just a reflection of resistance—it is resistance itself, part of Spain's fight for the right to good, affordable, secure housing for all.
