Blockades around a house in a Portland neighborhood are to be dismantled after the owners of the foreclosed "red house" they were surrounding reached a deal with the municipal authorities, Oregon Live reports.
The deal with the city was reached Saturday night and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced that the blockades around the house would be cleared.
Antifa activists occupied the house last week after police attempted to enforce an eviction at the location. Protesters set up barricades along multiple blocks surrounding the house making it difficult for police to evict the family. Police say that weapons were being stockpiled on site, and that at least one armed sentry was seen patrolling the area.
Wheeler also apologized in a letter for referring to the blockading of the house as an "autonomous zone" and for calling upon police to use "all lawful means" to clear the residence.
"We apologize and understand that following our tweets earlier this week that your family received threats," the letter reads. "We did not intend to attract attention that results in threats of harm and violence to your family or that escalated tensions in our community. Nobody should be subjected to this kind of stress and harm, and we apologize for the role our tweets played in this."
Wheeler said all threats of violence made against the family would be investigated by local detectives. He also stated that the city would help the family find temporary housing in the meantime.
"I maintain measured optimism that we can accomplish this step and move toward the next steps to advance the safety and well-being of the family and the safety of the neighborhood," Wheeler said in a separate statement.
The house was purchased for $260,000 in 2018 by a Portland landlord at foreclosure, who intended to evict the family. The house was foreclosed after the family failed to pay the mortgage on the house. The family has described themselves as "sovereign citizens," an unorganized group of activists across Canada and the United States who subscribe to a pseudo-legal philosophy whereby they are only subject to British common law, but not statutory law. The sovereign citizens movement has been heavily associated with squatting.
The family has since raised enough money to purchase the house themselves.
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