By The Oregonian
oregonlive.com
PORTLAND, Ore. — Barricades that had blocked a stretch of North Mississippi Avenue reportedly were coming down Sunday morning after a Black and Indigenous family fighting to save their North Portland house lost to foreclosure struck a tentative deal with city officials.
Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office did not immediately confirm the agreement, and any terms weren’t immediately clear.
The family appeared to have raised enough to buy the house back from its legal owner, who bought it at foreclosure action for $260,000 at 2018 and had indicated a willingness to return it at cost.
Activists on Sunday put out a call on Twitter asking for people to return to what’s become known as the “red house” and help clear the street, saying police had agreed not to force the family to leave while those negotiations were ongoing — so long as the street was cleared by Monday night.
An ongoing occupation at the house escalated last week as Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies moved to enforce a court-ordered eviction. Police, faced with a large crowd and volatile crowd, fell back after making several arrests, and those gathered built barricades that blocked off several blocks. Police said they found weapons at the site, and at least one armed sentry has been seen there in the days since.
Mayor Ted Wheeler had last week said police were authorized to use “all lawful means” to end the occupation of the house and street, but police have since kept their distance. He later said the city was working toward a peaceful resolution.
Jim Middaugh, a spokesman for Wheeler, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
Julie Metcalf Kinney, who is Native American, and her husband William Kinney Jr., who is Black, owned the home for more than 23 years before losing it to foreclosure for failing to pay the mortgage for nearly a year and half. Julie Metcalf Kinney and the couple’s oldest son, William Kinney III, have asserted their sovereign citizen beliefs that the law does not apply to them and courts have no jurisdiction over them or their debts.
The Kinney family and their supporters say they’re fighting a history of gentrification, discrimination and predatory subprime lending that has gutted Portland’s historically Black neighborhoods and replaced them with apartments and condos.
(c)2020 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.)