Residents and housing activists filled the Alameda and surrounding streets on September 14, staging an “anti-grito” to denounce displacement and demand fair access to housing. Organizers framed the action as a response to recent evictions in Roma Norte and the Centro, and to a rental market that many say has pushed longtime tenants out of their neighborhoods.
CDMX anti gentrification
The turnout reached the hundreds by late afternoon near the Museo Memoria y Tolerancia, where the call to gather had circulated on social media in the days prior. Demonstrators carried signs about rent hikes, alleged abuses during evictions, and the need for a citywide tenants’ defense office. The “anti-grito” came one day before Independence Day celebrations, a symbolic counter-programming meant to center housing as a civic right.
Speakers linked the protest to a summer of housing mobilizations in Mexico City, including three marches in July that authorities said ended without major incidents. Those events, which began at the Hemiciclo a Juárez and moved through the Centro, also drew attention to the role of tourism and short-term rentals in the central boroughs.
Evictions set the stage
In late August, back-to-back evictions in Roma Norte (Tonalá 125) and in the Centro (República de Cuba 11) displaced dozens of families, many of them older adults. Photos of people’s belongings piled on sidewalks spread quickly, and some residents have since slept in street camps while seeking legal help. City officials said the actions were derived from court orders or criminal investigations; residents and advocates called them violent and irregular.
Newsrooms that visited the sites documented allegations of missing property, medical emergencies, and a lack of alternative housing. The images and testimonies fed directly into Sunday’s protest agenda, where speakers demanded a moratorium on forced removals without dignified relocation.
Policy moves and an unfinished rulebook
The protest meets a government that has already promised a 14-point plan to “stabilize rents,” create a Tenants’ Rights Defender, and present a Law of Fair, Reasonable and Affordable Rents to the city congress. The Brugada administration says it wants rent increases capped to inflation, new indices to flag “high-pressure” zones, and tighter control of short-term rentals. Public forums on the plan began in August.
Whether those ideas become enforceable policy remains an open question. Earlier efforts to regulate short-term lodging—popularly known as la ley Airbnb—were approved in 2024 but have stalled amid legal fights and technical hurdles, leaving residents uncertain about what rules actually apply today.
A market that outpaces paychecks
Rents in several Mexico City neighborhoods have jumped well above inflation in the past two years, according to reporting based on major listing platforms. In some colonias, increases were multiples of the national inflation rate, with Roma Norte among the most brutal hit. National price data confirm that housing costs have risen faster than the general basket for much of 2025.
Activists argue the surge is tied to speculative investment and the growth of short-term rentals, especially in central Cuauhtémoc, where independent mapping shows a concentration of listings. The city’s own plan now cites these pressures as a reason to focus first on central districts.
A protest with a long memory
Tension over tourism, remote workers, and housing has been building since the city embraced a 2022 partnership with Airbnb and UNESCO to promote Mexico City to digital nomads. That push, celebrated at the time, is now a touchstone for critics who say policy helped fuel today’s displacement dynamics. Officials insist new rules will balance the benefits of tourism with residents’ rights.
What residents asked for
On Sunday, people who had lost their homes stood beside neighbors worried they could be next. The demands were plain: stop violent evictions, offer real relocation, enforce rent caps tied to inflation, and clarify the rules for tourist rentals. The city has promised a bill in the coming weeks. Protesters say they will be back if the debate drifts or delays the bill’s return.
