A 94-year-old Florence resident faces losing the apartment she has occupied for more than six decades after her landlord proposed increasing the monthly rent from €450 to €1,200. Franca’s lease expires in February, and her family says renewal under the new terms would be unaffordable. She receives a minimum pension and a survivor’s pension following her husband’s death; according to her daughter, the proposed rent would leave virtually nothing for basic necessities, including food.
Franca has occupied the 70-square-meter apartment since the start of the 1960s. Her husband lived there alongside her, and their daughter came into the world in the flat. Family photographs, paintings of Florence’s streets and keepsakes from her daughter’s wedding fill a home that, her daughter says, is the only place Franca truly feels she belongs. Although the family accepts some increase and her daughter would contribute toward it, she describes the proposed amount as impossible. She says there was no meaningful opportunity to negotiate a compromise and has sought assistance from the tenants’ union Sunia. She has requested anonymity because she has not yet found a way to tell her mother.
The building’s apartments belong to one landlord. As far as the daughter knows, they remain residential rentals rather than vacation accommodation, though she believes the new management wants substantially higher returns. The case unfolds amid pressure on tenants across Tuscany, where 2,427 eviction orders were issued in 2025. Florence accounts for approximately 35% of the region’s requests to enforce evictions.
