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As #COVID19 deaths + cases explode in #Oregon + the lifting of an eviction moratorium looms, hundreds of #Portland residents beat back an attempted heavily militarized eviction of the @RHonMississippi + erected barricades around neighborhood in defense. https://itsgoingdown.org/portland-housing-defense-barricades/
Tuesday, militarized Multnomah County Sheriffs backed by Portland police officers, attempted to evict the Afro-Indigenous Kinney family, who has lived in the @RHonMississippi, in the North Portland neighborhood for 65 years.
The Kinney family has been fighting the foreclosure of their home for years. In September of this year following an attempted violent eviction that is still being contested in court, people began to build a defense encampment to help block another violent police eviction.
"Since Sept, support has grown...we maintain a fully functional kitchen offering two free hot meals a day, and free programming centered in healing + abolition. This is what it looks like for neighbors to truly take care of each other." https://redhouseonmississippi.com/story
This eviction is taking place as #COVID19 deaths and reported cases are exploding across #Oregon. Just this Monday saw the most reported deaths in a single day across the state. https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/36-covid-19-deaths-in-oregon-most-in-a-single-day/283-1fefd2b0-f875-485d-907e-b970f027a9a3
This explosion of #COVID cases comes as a moratorium on evictions is scheduled to expire, forcing potentially thousands of people out onto the street. https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/eviction-moratorium-expires-at-the-end-of-the-year/283-7eace6fc-618f-4cfd-9f31-a468cff98f20
According to @democracynow, "New research finds more than 400,000 COVID-19 cases and nearly 11,000 deaths resulted from evictions, after many states allowed eviction moratoriums to expire over the summer." https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12/1/headlines/study_finds_evictions_in_2020_led_to_10_700_additional_pandemic_deaths
Neoliberals like Ted Wheeler and the far-Right which is pushing for a total "Re-Opening" of society in the face of the pandemic fundamentally agree: poor and working people should pay for the crisis: both in taking the economic brunt and their lives.
Meanwhile, across Oregon, the far-Right moving from "Stop the Steal" rallies to demonstrations against lockdown measures and masking ordinances. https://www.opb.org/article/2020/12/04/coronavirus-restrictions-protest-far-right-groups/
The rise of a militant housing movement in the face of the pandemic shows a different way forward: from folks occupying vacant homes in Oakland, reclaiming homes in SoCal, squatters taking homes in Philly, and rent strikes being organized across the US.
