Thread by @keikoinboston

1. If you've seen these tweets about what happened yesterday at the Red Lion Inn in Olympia, Washington and wondered about the missing context, see below. 👇

archive.vn/lBcIC

2. "Antifa" did not randomly besiege a hotel in Olympia, WA.

(Antifa is in quotes since neither local media nor police are identifying them as such from the sources I've reviewed.)

Full text of the city's statement via:

https://twitter.com/cityofolympia/status/1356098393144233987

Archive: archive.vn/mDRJj

3.

"The Olympia Police Department (OPD) is in the process of clearing the Downtown Olympia Red Lion Hotel after it was forcibly occupied by a group identified as Oly Housing Now, a homeless activist group."

4.

"Before the occupation, the activist group had earlier reserved 17 rooms, which were occupied by currently unhoused individuals as the occupation occurred. "

5. Oly Housing Now, an Olympia-based housing activist group were allegedly behind the

Archive: archive.vn/MsxwB

https://twitter.com/drewmikkelsenk5/status/1356353435432415232

6. @KING5Seattle reported that 7 people were arrested on Sunday night. An earlier version of the article said 12 people were arrested.
Current archive: archive.vn/2YSqY
Old archive: archive.vn/PGN7T

king5.com/article/news/l…

7. Oly Housing Now issued this press release yesterday with a list of demands.

web.archive.org/web/2021020116…

kiro7.com/news/local/hom…

8. I'm not sure where this was first released to the public. Images of the press release came up in a Google Image search for 2 Facebook pages but I can't access/find it on Facebook.

9. The oldest tweet I can find is from Rebecca Parson, a volunteer member of the Tacoma Area Commission on Disabilities.

archive.vn/ALG2N

10. In December, Tacoma Housing Now staged a similar protest at a Travelodge in Fife, WA, (suburb of Tacoma) — a 35 minute drive from the Red Lion Inn.

web.archive.org/web/2021012602…

king5.com/article/news/l…

11. Tacoma Housing Now paid for 16 rooms for Christmas Eve then "refused to leave and pressured the city and county government to step up and pay the bill".

12. 6 days later "Fife police ordered the non-paying Travelodge guests to leave the property, at the request of motel owner Shawn Randhawa."

13. Per Fife Police Chief Peter Fisher: "all subjects illegally occupying the Travelodge have voluntarily left the site."

web.archive.org/web/2020123021…

cityoffife.org/DocumentCenter…

14. The operator had said that if they didn't leave he would have to close and lay off his 10 staff members. Note: Fife City Manager Hyun Kim described the motel as "a minority-owned business".

web.archive.org/web/2020122918…

ktvl.com/news/local/hom…

15. If all Americans had housing, activists would find something else protest about, but social problems like lack of housing and jobs underlie other problems like crime and extremism so these are urgent problems that need to be solved.

16. While I agree that the incidents at the Olympia Red Lion Inn & Fife Travelodge are criminal and unfair to staff and motel operators and the lack of national mainstream news coverage is a problem (though unsurprising), ...

17. ... would love to see the people putting their time & energy towards social media performance about the Antifa Problem putting that energy towards real solutions to solve the homelessness crisis.

18. I missed this Olympian article which has more details.

"Deitz said Oly Housing Now is a new group with about 40 members that formed for this action."

archive.vn/KtAhT

theolympian.com/news/local/art…

19.

"One member of Tacoma Housing Now … cited examples of similar actions in cities such as Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Portland.

“There’s a national movement of people being militant about securing housing for the houseless,” Banshee said."

20. And for anyone who can’t be bothered to look up the word “besiege”:

google.com/search?q=besie…

21. If you’d like to read journalism on people and organizations that are working on solving homelessness, check out @soljourno’s Solutions U database.

solutionsu.solutionsjournalism.org/search?q%5Btex…

@soljourno 22. "3 cities in the U.S. have ended chronic homelessness: Here's how they did it” by @adele_peters about @BuiltforZero @tableau Foundation

solutionsjournalism.org/stories/3-citi…

fastcompany.com/90316607/3-cit…

23.

"While homelessness might often be seen as an intractable problem because of its complexity–or one that costs more to solve than communities can afford–the program is proving that is not the case.”

24.

“...Bergen County also committed to a “housing first” approach, meaning that people move into permanent housing as a first step before also getting help with finding a job, mental healthcare, or other issues."