The “Red House,” as it is known, has been owned by the Kinneys, a Black and Indigenous family, for the last 65 years. The family is now facing eviction, claiming to be victims of systemic racism and redlining.
Protesters have shown up in support, occupying the home and area around it to the discomfort of neighbors, two different law enforcement departments and city officials.
And their presence has led to violent clashes with the police, with the mayor commanding officers to “use all lawful means” to end the protests.
What is happening on North Mississippi Avenue didn’t just pop up overnight — it is the result of systemic problems and of a series of events that go back years.
Kinney family takes out a loan in 2002
William and Pauline Kinney moved to Portland from Little Rock, Arkansas, to escape segregation and the horrors that plagued the South at the time.
Little did they know they would be facing a different type of segregation out West — they were denied a loan for the house because of redlining — the practice of color-coding federal government maps of every community. African American neighborhoods were colored red, a warning to lenders that it was too risky to insure mortgages in those areas.
As a result, the Kinneys bought the red house “outright with cash” in 1955, according to the Red House website.
William Kinney Jr., the couple’s eldest son, said the house at one point served as a rental for Black families. In 1983, he moved in with his wife, Julie, who is an Indigenous Native American of the Upper Skagit Tribe of Washington, according to the website. The couple raised their three children there.
The Kinneys problems started in 2002, when 17-year-old son, William Kinney III, was taken to prison for a car accident.
“In hopes of saving their child from the brutality of the prison system, the family was left with no choice but to take out a loan against their home to pay for costly legal fees,” the Red House website says.
That loan was subsequently sold and transferred between various companies from 2004 to 2018, when it was sold to a developer. The Kinney’s home then went into foreclosure, resulting in two years of legal battles.
“The tactics we are facing, of sneaky and illegal foreclosure tactics, predatory banking and loans, elected judges who take campaign contributions from the real estate industry, coupled with violence from law enforcement and no real due process, have been used across this historically Black neighborhood to displace Black and poor people,” Julie Metcalf Kinney, the family matriarch, said in a statement. “If Black and Indigenous lives matter in Portland, this must stop.”
Protesters gather to fight eviction
The Multnomah County Circuit Court issued a writ of execution for an eviction at the Red House in February, according to the county sheriff’s office. This was before Oregon Gov. Kate Brown issued a state of emergency in March in response to Covid-19.
The sheriff’s office noted that the eviction notice was issued before either the state or federal emergency moratoriums on evictions went into effect.
“We understand evictions are challenging proceedings even in the best of circumstances,” Sheriff Mike Reese said. “I believe everyone should have access to appropriate housing.”
The state of emergency halted the eviction for six months, according to a news release from the Red House website. But on September 9, Multnomah County deputies served the court order to the family, the sheriff’s office said.
After the eviction order, protesters began converging on the house in support, “trespassing on the home’s front and backyards, and camping on adjacent privately owned and city-owned properties,” the sheriff’s statement added.
They joined the family and have not left the property since September, resulting in multiple clashes with law enforcement. A sheriff’s office news release says 81 calls for service were made between September 1 and November 30, because of fights, shots fired, burglary, thefts, vandalism, noise violations and threats by armed individuals.
On Tuesday morning, officers showed up at the Red House to force the family out.
Coya Crespin, with the Community Alliance of Tenants, told CNN affiliate KPTV the encampment at the Red House was not only for the Kinneys, but also in part to protest gentrification.
“This is systemic oppression. This is gentrification at real time,” Crespin said.
Neighbors spoke to CNN affiliate KATU-TV, with some saying they worried for their safety.
“If there are some sort of demands or specific requests that the people are protesting for, they can verbalize those to a party that could hear them, and then maybe they can come to a mutual agreement or conclusion that people could get behind,” Christopher Ammerman told KATU.
Other neighbors saw both sides of the argument, like RJ Florestan. He said it’s not the easiest time for people to be displaced.
“So, you sympathize with people, but you also sympathize with the homeowners. You sympathize with the people in the neighborhood who have children and have to pass by that debacle every day, and it gets straining. You don’t know who’s out there, you don’t know who’s sitting up there on that hill,” Florestan said.
Portland steps up effort to control property
The Portland Police Bureau helped contractors enter the Red House and “fence the property” Tuesday morning, police said.
During the fencing, “people attempted to get inside the perimeter at various locations, despite the presence of uniformed police personnel, police vehicles and police tape,” police said.
“Officers made some arrests and reported using pepper spray in at least one instance,” the bureau said. “As police stood on the perimeter, some were subjected to thrown objects such as rocks and paint-filled balloons.”
Later that morning, police removed the perimeter around the home and left the scene at which point “people removed a portion of the fence and entered the private property,” police said.
“Portland Police returned and attempted to disperse people from the property, however, people began throwing objects at police vehicles and officers, broke police vehicle windows and flattened tires on two police vehicles,” police said.
As a result of the chaos that morning, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler tweeted he was “authorizing the Portland Police to use all lawful means to end the illegal occupation on North Mississippi Avenue and to hold those violating our community’s laws accountable.”
“There will be no autonomous zone in Portland,” Wheeler tweeted. “It’s time for the encampment and occupation to end. There are many ways to protest and work toward needed reform. Illegally occupying private property, openly carrying weapons, threatening and intimidating people are not among them.”
Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell says the bureau wants a peaceful and safe resolution to the conflict on North Mississippi Avenue.
“Our goal is for this to resolve peacefully to increase safety for all involved. I encourage those involved to reach out to our demonstration liaisons so we can discuss a peaceful outcome,” he said.
William Nietzche, the lawyer for the Kinney family, told CNN that they have filed federal and local cases fighting the eviction.
After losing one federal lawsuit in the District Court of Oregon last year, the family appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court, which denied their petition, records show.
Last month, Neitzche explained, the family appealed to the US Supreme Court and are waiting to hear if the court will take up their case.
