Parsons she said in her campaign video, “F*ck that!” Then grabbed a bolt cutter and cut through a fence around a home which had been foreclosed on by a bank and moved in.
Washington state congressional candidate Rebecca Parson, who was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, suggested in a campaign ad that a million people living in the US should break into empty houses and live in them in order to get Congress to pass housing legislation.
Parson, running as a Democrat to represent Washington's 6th Congressional District, said in the video ad that while sleeping in her car, she "did what she was supposed to" in order to fight for change, which included attending protests, writing letters, and making phone calls, but failed to accomplish anything.
https://rumble.com/embed/v1382lp/?pub=2n05b
After celebrating her previous activist efforts, which included illegally occupying properties such as a motel, yet admitting failure in her efforts to achieve anything, she said in the video, "F*ck that!" grabbed a bolt cutter and cut through a fence around a home which had been foreclosed on by a bank and moved in.
You feel it. I feel it. We're on the edge of collapse.
Wall St is buying up entire neighborhoods, rent & home prices are soaring, working people can't afford homes.
It's time to occupy empty homes nationwide. It's time for #HousingForAll. RT & join us: https://t.co/YvQvqUR2Q4 pic.twitter.com/RYIZVMTaEE
— Rebecca Parson for Congress, WA-06 (@RebeccaforWA)
She continued, "Imagine I proposed a housing for all bill in Congress, then imagine you, me, and a million of our friends took action and occupied empty houses nationwide. They couldn't ignore us."
Parson continued, "No one has ever done anything like this. That's why it's going to work."
The strategy would qualify at minimum to trespass, which is a misdemeanor in Washington.
Parson’s campaign previously contacted The Post Millennial’s Ari Hoffman through his radio show on 570 KVI for an interview, but has since refused to acknowledge follow up requests to schedule.
Parson is no stranger to occupying properties. In 2020, she was the spokesperson for Tacoma Housing Now, a group that took over 16 rooms in a motel in Fife, Wash., on Christmas Eve, claiming they were using it to house homeless people. The activists paid for one night, then refused to leave and demanded that local governments pay the motel bill and designate the motel a shelter, as had been done in other parts of the state.
Our hotel occupation is going strong! 43 people have been off the streets for 4 nights and counting. https://t.co/2yCMRyKrp4
— Rebecca Parson for Congress, WA-06 (@RebeccaforWA)
The activists were allied with Antifa groups. An extremist site It's Going Down, that had previously stated some of their members are "veterans" of Antifa street battles in Olympia, Washington, documented the occupation.
As suspected, the group responsible for occupying the motel is part of antifa. Extremist site It’s Going Down has published a post by them. They say some of their members are “veterans” of the recent antifa street battles in Olympia, Wash. https://t.co/cYl89Pj8iV
— Andy Ngô ???? (@MrAndyNgo)
At the time, Parson told The Post Millennial that they targeted that specific location because "…it had the cheapest rates in the area for the first night that we intended to pay for."
Activists claim there is money for the homeless that isn't being spent. They told me they want this hotel to be a shelter like the ones in King County. They also told me they picked it because it had the cheapest rate for the first night so they could gain access pic.twitter.com/g6IimBO8bK
— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather)
Parson even claimed the activists were bringing business to the motel by "…demanding that the city and county pay for the other nights we have been here."
Housing people in unoccupied hotels doesn’t ruin anyone‘s business.
— Tacoma Housing Now (@TacHousing)
She also falsely claimed that the owners wanted them there were happy to have them.
Here's the hotel's owner: pic.twitter.com/AmHjvBHiOH
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— Sebastian Robertson (@srobertsontv)
"These people book it for one night, cheat me into it and now tell me that I am doing something…somebody needs to be paying for it," the Travelodge operator told KING 5.
The manager of the motel told The Post Millennial, "I understand their problem, but it is not Travelodge's fault. We had nothing to do with it and now this is happening to us."
"I’m just devastated," the operator told The News Tribune. "Because of the protest, I have nothing else. I was barely getting through this pandemic, and now this. This Christmas, the Grinch came."
"I’ll have to lock the doors. and if the city won’t kick them out, they can have it," he told The News Tribune. "I’ll shut off the water and I’m not fighting with these people. I believe there should be a law."
The occupation lasted for 6 days, and was comprised of approximately 60 people, and eventually broke into two more rooms, during which time COVID positive occupants flaunted having the virus as another reason to receive housing. The occupiers finally left when police ordered them to vacate the premises.
The month before, Tacoma Housing Now broke into the abandoned Gault Middle School building in Tacoma and moved homeless people inside. After explaining the air in the building was toxic which is why the building was abandoned and condemned, Tacoma police moved the group out.
Despite all that, Parsons claimed in her campaign ad "We occupied empty buildings."
The minimum wage shouldn’t be $7.25. It shouldn’t be $15. It should be $30.
— Rebecca Parson for Congress, WA-06 (@RebeccaforWA)
Parson, who has claimed to have been homeless herself, is also campaigning on a platform which calls for doubling the demand for a $15 minimum wage to $30, nationwide universal rent control, "community-controlled" housing, and a "declaration of housing as a human right."
She also wants to end "often-racist and always-exclusionary single-family zoning," and demands "at least" $2,000 a month in "direct cash payments to poor and low-income Americans" as part of a universal basic income.
Parson also proposes mandating that the government provide a job to anyone who wants one, as well as free public college or a trade school education.