Washington Democratic congressional candidate Rebecca Parson has a bold idea to get Congress to pass housing legislation. She wants a million people break into empty houses.
Parson, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is running to represent Washington’s 6th Congressional District. In a video ad, she outlined what she and her followers can do if she wins.
“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 says in the ad.
“No one has ever done anything like this,” Parson continues. “That’s why it’s going to work.”
$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 for Congress, WA-06 (@RebeccaforWA) May 20, 2022
On the surface, the strategy appears to amount to trespass, a misdemeanor in Washington, although state law does say that it is a defense if the property is abandoned.
Fox News reports that occupying buildings is nothing new for Parson. In 2020, she was a spokesperson for the group Tacoma Housing Now, which organized a group of homeless people in 16 rooms at a motel in Fife, Washington. The group paid for one night for the rooms, then demanded that the city and state government pay as the people refused to leave.
The people finally left after six days when police showed up and ordered them to get out.
Parson previously ran for Congress in 2020 and lost in the primary.
