Portland Activists Install Barricades Around 'Red House' Foreclosure Site

Activists protesting a family’s eviction in Portland, Oregon, erected barricades near their so-called ‘Red House on Mississippi’ on December 8, and clashed with police after several men were arrested on trespassing charges.

According to local reports, police arrived to the home on North Mississippi Avenue near Skidmore Street around 5 am Tuesday to clear the site of trespassers inhabiting the house for “months.” The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) confirmed in a press release. that seven arrests were made.

Police said they had responded to at least 81 calls from September 1 to November 30 regarding various disturbances at the home from neighbors, and that “community members told officers they were threatened and intimidated by people on the property.” The Multnomah County Circuit Court had ordered an eviction at the property in February, 2020.

Demonstrators protesting the eviction removed fencing, which police said property owners had installed at the time of the eviction. The protesters created barricades in the North Portland neighborhood, engaging in verbal altercations with police that turned physical.

Demonstrators had previously held a sit-in at the site, which they said was home to a Black-Indigenous family.

This footage, taken by Zane Sparling with the Portland Tribute, shows barricades near at the site of the home, as well as protesters chanting “land back.”

“Protesters in Portland are occupying space around Mississippi Avenue following police returning to the ‘Red House,’ where a local family is being evicted,” wrote Sparling on Twitter. Credit: Zane Sparling/Portland Tribune via Storyful