Portland squatters save owners demolition costs

Dozens of Portland firefighters battled a blaze at a former tavern that neighbors say had been taken over by squatters for more than a year.

“It was clearly a time bomb waiting to go off, and our concerns fell through the cracks,” Dusty McCord, who lives near the former Farmer’s Barn Tavern, told The Oregonian. “The level of negligence is breathtaking.”

McCord said squatters at the building had physically attacked neighbors, threatened people with guns and cut down trees to build fires. The property owners filed a demolition permit in February, the newspaper reported, but were still waiting for city approval.