The family at the center of the Red House protests in Portland own a second home just two miles away.
The loss of the Kinney family’s Red House on Mississippi to foreclosure after a long legal fight has led to five days of protests, with hundreds of demonstrators at the property.
Property developer Roman Ozeruga, who bought the house at foreclosure for $260,000, told Fox News he was willing to sell it back to the family for the same cost, plus $20,000 already paid in property taxes, to end the tensions.
A GoFundMe campaign has alsready raised the $280,000 it may cost for the Kinney family to repurchase their home.
But that offer could be withdrawn after it was revealed the Kinneys have a second home, which they are currently living at, located on the 2800 block of Northeast Eighth Avenue in Irvington.
OPB first confirmed the existence of the second home when they knocked on a door to the house on Friday morning. Michael Kinney answered the door and confirmed ownership before declining follow-up questions.
The house is owned by the Kinney family trust. The same foundation reportedly owns the ‘Red House’ on Mississippi.
This is the second house the Kinney family reportedly owns at 2834 Northeast 8th Ave
The Kinney family lived at the ‘Red House’ in Portland at the center of ongoing protests
City activists have sought to fight the attempted eviction of the ‘Red House on Mississippi’
The Kinneys lost the house to foreclosure in 2018 after five to six decades of ownership.
Pauline Kinney had purchased both homes in the 1950s and 1960s. She sold the ‘Red House’ to her daughter, Julie, in 1995.
They had paid off the properties in full but reportedly took out a new mortgage loan in 2002 against their home, which resulted in the foreclosure in 2018 when they missed a number of payments, according to CNN.
Still, the protests continue around their old home, with no signs of letting up anytime in the near future.
KOIN 6 News reports that around 300 people were barricaded within the property on Friday, stocked with weapons to defend themselves from the police and counter-protestors.
‘A lot of the security you will see inside the zone is people with long arms, 9MM military Glocks and what-not along with stashes on the ground, either rocks, bottles, things to throw at the police, you know, if they decide to come in,’ said Gabe Johnson, director of the Coalition to Save Portland.
‘You have untrained people with a cache of guns, a lot of guns,’ Johnson continued. ‘At any point a weapon could go off.’
Mayor Ted Wheeler appears prepared to send in the police or take other measures to end the standoff.
The house was initially foreclosed upon in 2018 after a long legal fight by the Kinneys
Protesters have accused the city of gentrification and racism in evicting the Kinneys
The protesters have stood guard of the house since Tuesday, when officers attempted to remove the Kinney family from the home
‘If diplomacy and de-escalation fail, we are prepared for other alternatives because the Mayor will not let an armed occupation stand in the City of Portland,’ Mayor Wheeler said in a statement.
Meanwhile, those behind the protests are looking to cut a deal to avoid prosecution ahead of the inevitable end to the standoff.
Many in Portland feel the Kinneys losing legal battle was the result of gentrification and redlining; the Kinneys are Black and Indigenous.
‘This is systemic oppression,’ Coya Crespin of the Community Alliance of Tenants told CNN. ‘This is gentrification at real time.’
The protests ramped up on Tuesday, when officers attempted to remove the Kinneys from the home.
As of Friday, it was estimated that around 300 people were behind barricades at the house
The protesters are armed with weapons, which has caused fear among the neighbors
Mayor Ted Wheeler has threatened to use ‘alternatives’ to break up the ‘armed occupation’