A Mystery Home Sits Vacant in Hosford-Abernathy

ADDRESS: 2332 SE Tibbetts St.

YEAR BUILT: 1914

SQUARE FOOTAGE: 1,358

MARKET VALUE: $533,060

OWNER: The Johnson Leo Trust

HOW LONG IT’S BEEN EMPTY: Nearly 30 years, a neighbor estimates

WHY IT’S EMPTY: Unknown

The Hosford-Abernathy neighborhood offers all the amenities sought by people who want to live in Portland: Schools, stores, parks and some of the city’s best restaurants are within walking distance on nearby Southeast Division and Clinton streets. There are bus lines and bike lanes if you don’t want to drive.

But near the neighborhood’s southern border stands a two-story Craftsman home that one neighbor says has been vacant for nearly 30 years. In a sea of well-kept homes, the boarded-up basement windows and peeling brown paint at 2332 SE Tibbetts St. are anomalous.

“This house has been empty since I moved here in 1995,” says John Lewis, who lives a few doors away. “The place has had vagrancy problems, with people breaking in and sleeping there over the years. It makes no sense to keep it unoccupied and barely maintained.”

Indeed, city records show the house has been the subject of a series of five “vacant nuisance” and general housing complaints dating from to 2007 to 2019. Lewis says he once reached out to the owner to inquire about purchasing the property, to no avail.

Annaliese Smith moved into a house next door to the vacant home about three years ago.

“It’s a little spooky, the fact that it’s abandoned,” Smith says.

The only sign of life, Smith says, is woman who periodically stops by, apparently to do light maintenance.

“She’s really elderly, so I offer to help, but she declines,” Smith says. “In this neighborhood, the house really sticks out—it’s kind of an eyesore. I’d really like it to be fixed up and for people to move in.”

Until last October, property records show, the property belonged to several members of a family with the surname Leo. Those owners have regularly paid their property taxes in full and on time. In October, the ownership group transferred title to the Johnson Leo Trust.

Johnson Leo, a Portland resident, has property investments in the metro area. Leo could not be reached for comment. A business associate, who declined to give his name, said he’d pass along a message, but neither Leo nor his attorney responded by press deadlines.

Every week, WW examines one mysteriously vacant property in the city of Portland, explains why it’s empty, and considers what might arrive there next. Send addresses to newstips@wweek.com.