Washington Democratic congressional candidate Rebecca Parson suggested occupying empty homes to get housing legislation passed in Congress.
Parson released a video ad explaining why her plan is going to work.
“You feel it. I feel it. We’re on the edge of collapse. The corporate elite tell us not to worry but what has doing what they told us ever gotten us?” Parson said.
She continued, “I did what they told me. I went to college. I got a master’s degree. I ended up living in my car. I did what they told me. Protests. Letters. Phone calls. Nothing changed.”
Parson explained, “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.”
She added, “No one has ever done anything like this. That’s why it’s going to work.”
Additionally, in the tweet, Parson wrote, “The minimum wage shouldn’t be $7.25. It shouldn’t be $15. It should be $30.”
The candidate argued “$30 is the bare minimum in every county in the US for an adult with a kid to afford housing, food, healthcare, basic necessities. No vacations, no eating out. Those are the facts and no amount of praying to Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman will change that.”
Check out the video below:
$30 is the bare minimum in every county in the US for an adult with a kid to afford housing, food, healthcare, basic necessities. No vacations, no eating out. Those are the facts and no amount of praying to Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman will change that.
— Rebecca Parson (@rebeccaeparson) May 20, 2022
pic.twitter.com/RYIZVMBzg4
Parson lost in the primary when she previously ran for Congress in 2020.
In the same year, Parson acted as a spokesperson for the group Tacoma Housing Now.
The organization brought together a group of people experiencing homelessness to stay in a motel without paying, as local KING5 reported.
According to a statement from Fife Police Chief Peter Fisher, the guests later “voluntarily left.”
Parson responded to the statement, saying, “It’s a total joke and an Orwellian use of the word ‘voluntary,’ because the police were at the hotel threatening people with felonies, and they’re now going on the record in news articles saying they might charge us with felonies.”
She added, “So I don’t know what world we live in where threatening someone with felonies if they don’t leave, and then they leave, is that voluntary? Of course not.”
Her statement declared it was “not voluntary.”
