Raphael Warnock’s Church Files 3 More Eviction Proceedings: ‘Evicted for 1 Night by Lock Change’

Ebenezer Baptist Church’s apartment building reportedly filed three more eviction proceedings last week, just two days before Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) claimed nobody had been evicted from the building.

“There have been no evictions, full stop,” Warnock said in Friday’s debate.

Just two days earlier, on Wednesday, Warnock’s church, which owns Columbia Tower at MLK Village building in downtown Atlanta, tried to evict three more residents from the building for overdue rent, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The tenants had not paid as little as $115 in back rent.

Warnock’s apartment complex filed three court proceedings against three tenants, demanding “possession” of the apartments, $250 court filing fee reimbursements, and $75 late fees, the Free Beacon reported. All tenants the Warnock’s church wanted to be removed were only late one month on their rent.

According to court filings, residents have defended themselves by pointing out their landlord’s eviction tactics. “If you don’t pay your rent by the fifth, a dispossessory notice comes out that week,” one resident said. “They won’t accept the payment after the fifth.”

Another two residents said they offered to pay rent on or before their due date by the building refused receipt. “I offered and had money to pay my rent on or before the date I usually pay, but my landlord refused to accept it,” they said.

One resident told the magistrate the building locked him out of his apartment for one night by changing his lock but did not give a notice to vacate. “[D]rills locks in door with no probal [sic] cause didn’t give notice to vacate,” and that he was unfortunately “evicted for 1 night by lock change, incurred hotel fee.”

Previously reporting on Warnock’s Ebenezer Baptist Church revealed the not-for-profit organization attempted to evict eight tenants from the apartment building for as little as $28.55 in overdue rent. Financial statements from 2021 show the church possesses liquid assets of more than $1.2 million.

The apartment building, which caters to the “chronically homeless” and those with “mental disabilities,” has found itself sued a dozen times during the pandemic by tenants.

Warnock’s senate opponent, Republican Herschel Walker, has promised to pay past due rents to stop “Reverend Warnock from evicting” tenants who live in the church’s building.

Walker’s campaign spokesman Will Kiley said in a statement on Tuesday that “Warnock’s church oversees Columbia Tower and as senior pastor” and that “he is heavily involved in the operations of the church.”

“Warnock is involved enough in his church to get a salary and a housing allowance, but he isn’t involved in these eviction notices? It’s time for Raphael Warnock to man up, tell the truth, and take responsibility for his actions for once,” Kiley said.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.