Barricades line Kenny Housman's property, on Clinton Street near the intersection with Southeast 136th Avenue in Portland, July 9, 2025. Housman allowed people living in RVs and other vehicles to park along his property, which developed into an ad hoc encampment that drew headlines.
Morgan Barnaby / OPB
A Southeast Portland man accused of fatally stabbing another man who enforced rules around a homeless camp was arrested Wednesday, days after being indicted for manslaughter.
On Friday, Multnomah County prosecutors published an indictment accusing Ronnie L. Scott of killing Kenny Housman, who local media at the time dubbed the “sheriff of Clinton Street,” last year.
An undated, provided photo of Kenny Housman. Housman helped organize a homeless camp near his home until he died in a knife attack in July, 2024.
Courtesy of Larry Vaughn
Scott, 61, is facing first- and second-degree manslaughter charges, as well as first-degree assault.
The indictment accusing Scott became public Friday. Even though grand jury indictments for serious crimes like manslaughter are often sealed, Scott’s wasn’t because he and his attorney had been actively communicating with prosecutors during the grand jury process, a Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson said.
The prosecutor’s office said while Scott was free, he was aware he had been charged with the killing. Scott’s attorney did not immediately respond to OPB’s requests for comment.
Scott lived near Housman, who owned property along Clinton Street near its intersection with Southeast 136th Avenue. With Housman’s consent, people living in RVs and other vehicles lined the street near Housman’s property and developed an ad hoc encampment that drew headlines.
Housman told Portland television station KATU in 2024 that he screened people living in the neighborhood and would enforce rules, such as keeping the street clean.
Shortly after midnight July 15, 2024, officers dispatched to the encampment found Housman with life-threatening injuries. He later died at a hospital from what a medical examiner identified as fatal stab wounds.
Property records show Scott lived at the nearby Copperfield Condominiums, where he purchased a unit in October 2023.
Housman’s half-brother, Larry Vaughn, told OPB he has heard from neighbors that Scott was on Clinton Street the night Housman died and was ranting about the homeless encampment. When Houseman exited his home to speak to Scott, he was attacked, according to Vaughn.
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Witnesses who talked to The Oregonian/OregonLive in 2024 said they saw a man — who was not named in the article — holding a bloody knife and standing near Housman on the ground, bleeding from an apparent neck wound. The witnesses said they used a stick to hit the knife out of the man’s hand before police arrived.
Portland officers detained Scott that night, a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. He was released and cooperative with investigators, according to an agency press release a day after the killing.
Details of the investigation that led to Scott’s indictment nearly a year later haven’t been made public. Portland police declined to release records on Housman’s death in October 2024, citing an ongoing investigation.
Graffiti along Clinton Ave outside of Kenny Housman’s property in southeast Portland, Ore. reads “Kenny Remmbers,” July 9, 2025. Housman was killed in July 2024 outside his home. Multnomah County prosecutors charged a man who lived near the home with manslaughter.
Morgan Barnaby / OPB
“I’d rather it been done earlier, but if it took them this long then that’s what it did,” Vaughn said. “The only thing I’m interested in is the fact that it finally got done.”
Related: In Multnomah County, homeless deaths are on the rise
According to Vaughn, residents of the encampment held Scott down until police arrived after Housman was stabbed.
“I feel better now than I did. We got him indicted, that’s two-thirds of the battle right there,” Vaughn said.
Housman was killed following years of rapidly rising unsheltered homelessness in Portland that sparked fierce debate among political leaders, led to tensions in neighborhoods and saw growing violence against unhoused people.
Initial press reports described the stabbing as having started when residents of the encampment got into an altercation. Vaughn said that wasn’t true. He described residents of the camp as mostly working people who Housman tried to help.
Vaughn said Housman got along with everybody, even though he was sometimes stern with the people he welcomed to stay along the street.
Multiple signs on Clinton Street prevent people from parking their cars outside of Kenny Housman’s property.
Morgan Barnaby / OPB
“A stranger was just one more friend he hadn’t met yet,” he said. “God, I miss him.”
Clinton Street no longer has RVs and other campers parked along Housman’s property in the year since he died. City officials have lined the street with barricades to prevent parking and signs on the street warn violators they will be towed.
Scott did not have any pending court dates as of Wednesday afternoon.
