Portland resident claims homeless man threatened to burn her house down
Portland resident Vivica Elliot joined 'Fox & Friends' to discuss why she fears for her safety after confronting a homeless person at an encampment near her home.
A Portland resident issued an ominous warning to her community, predicting "something's going to happen," after a homeless man threatened to burn her home down.
Vivica Elliot has lived in Portland for nearly six decades, and has been dealing with homeless encampments in close proximity to her home for years now. She joined "Fox & Friends" to discuss why she fears for her safety following the alarming confrontation.
"I think there should be some rules to how close a camper should be able to position themselves to a house," Elliot told Steve Doocy on Thursday. "That tent is within 20 feet of a bathroom window where there are young children in that house. That's my niece's house. I live right next door."
"It's frightening. Something's going to happen," she continued. "Something is going to happen, and it already has, but I mean actually where something is going to physically happen."
Elliot said the homeless man threatened to burn her house down several times, after she confronted him when he set up shop behind her home.
She noted that she regularly interacts with the people camping near her home, and even though she has had her life threatened before, this interaction was particularly alarming.
"I feel that he's a threat," Elliot said. "I've had people threaten my life from that camp. This isn't the first time this has happened. This is an ongoing issue. It's been two or three years, and I… don't feel safe."
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"He had a conviction in his voice that he's going to burn my house down," she continued.
She reached out to the police, but was told they were unable to act since the vagrant didn't break the law.
Kevin Dahlgren, a drug and alcohol counselor, looks into an empty tent erected near occupied tents on a Portland sidewalk on Feb. 17, 2023. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)
"I think the police don't have any control any longer over camping since it's not illegal to camp," she said. "You don't have any rights as a homeowner to tell a camper to leave, so we're kind of stuck… You want to be able to trust the administrators of your city, and it's kind of like that's not going to happen, so we're on our own."
The homeless crisis has spiraled in Portland in recent years, with the overall rate growing since 2014, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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Oregon has the third-highest homeless rate in the country, falling behind only California and Vermont.
In Portland, where the crisis is most apparent, the Joint Office of Homeless Services' budget ballooned from $48.3 million in 2017, according to KATU, to $255.5 million this year.
But even as homelessness and crime continue to ravage Portland streets, Elliot said the city has always been her home - although that narrative is beginning to change.
"I was born and raised in this house," Elliot said. "Long term, I've been in Portland 59 years. I'm raising my children in this house and it's home… I's always been home, but… I'm starting to lose that feeling."
Fox News' Hannah Ray Lambert contributed to this report.