Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock (D) has long decried landlords having the ability to evict their tenants at will, and has made opposing evictions a key plank of his political platform.
Unemployment benefits have expired, rent is due today, and many Georgia families are at risk of eviction in the middle of a pandemic.
My opponents are supposed to be serving the people in Washington, but they're clearly only concerned with serving their own interests
— Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) August 1, 2020
However it appears that, in spite of Warnock’s numerous public statements decrying evictions, the very church were he formerly served as a senior pastor has now done just that and begun targeting poor tenants for eviction.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Democratic Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock is senior pastor, moved to evict impoverished, low-income residents from a building it owned as Warnock publicly raged against evictions.
Warnock continues to receive both a salary and, a significant, ‘housing allowance’ of $7,417 from the church.
Warnock’s Ebenezer Baptist Church has endeavored to remove underprivileged tenants from an apartment complex it owns, one of whom it attempted to evict for owing only $28.55 in back rent.
The church owns 99 percent of the Columbia Tower in Atlanta’s MLK Village.
During the coronavirus epidemic, a dozen eviction cases were reportedly brought against Columbia Tower inhabitants, the first in February 2020 and the latest recently in September 2022.
The entire amount of past-due rent stated in the complaints is only $4,900, which could have been met by one of Warnock’s monthly church housing stipends.
The cases were brought by Ebenezer Baptist Church’s business partner, Columbia Residential, the building’s 1% owner who controls day-to-day operations.
The news may undermine Warnock’s attempt to paint himself as a champion of the poor and downtrodden.
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