(Laurel Duggan, Daily Caller News Foundation) Homeless people are occupying a vacant home in Portland, Oregon, causing frequent fires and stealing from neighboring properties, according to Fox 12 Oregon.
Jacob and Beth Adams, two longtime Portland residents, complained of homeless people starting frequent and sometimes massive fires which make their way to the couple’s property, according to Fox 12. Portland’s homeless population has grown 50% since 2019, and about 6,000 homeless people live in the city, according to Fox News.
“There are fires that have been happening off and on. Major ones. This recent one actually came and set our property on fire,” Jacob Adams told Fox 12, adding that the fires have been going on for five years. “Within 12 hours of that fire, another fire popped up. My wife was screaming, and propane tanks were igniting off from the fire.”
The couple reported multiple thefts of their property along with drug use and fights in the abandoned house next to theirs, which has been covered with graffiti and has broken windows, missing walls and a hole in the roof. They had to buy fire extinguishers to handle the frequent fires.
“I don’t know how many times I’ve talked to police, because people are screaming, or someone is overdosing,” he said. “It’s just countless, countless first responders’ calls. We all have to love our neighbor no matter who they are. But at the point when they start setting your place on fire it becomes a little more difficult.”
Another neighbor, 83-year-old veteran Armand Martens, told Fox 12 he also deals with frequent theft from the house’s rotating occupants.
“I felt safer when I was walking around in downtown Saigon when I was in Vietnam than I do here in Portland,” he told the outlet.
The City of Portland did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
