Report: Warnock’s Church Cancels Eviction of Vietnam War Veteran

Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D-GA) church, which owns Columbia Tower at MLK Village in Atlanta, has reportedly canceled its attempted eviction of tenant and Vietnam war veteran Phillip White ahead of the Georgia Senate runoff.

Warnock’s Ebenezer Baptist Church reportedly tried to evict White in September for past-due rent of $192, while the senator, who is still a pastor at the church, has accepted a $120,000 annual pastoral salary and a $7,417 monthly housing allowance from the church on top of his Senate salary.

“They treat me like a piece of shit. They’re not compassionate at all,” White said in October of the building’s management.

A few weeks after Warnock failed to defeat Republican challenger Herschel Walker in the November midterm election, his church dropped its attempted eviction on Wednesday, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Walker had pledged to pay past-due rents to stop “Reverend Warnock from evicting” tenants who live in a building his church owns. “I will personally pay the $4,900 in past-due rents listed in this article to keep Reverend Warnock from evicting these people,” he stated.

The dropped eviction is the first attempted eviction the building’s property management company has reported canceling since the media exposed the controversial property management policy back in October.

September is not the first time White has had trouble with his landlord. Last year, White was also served an eviction notice for just $179 of past-due rent. The eviction notice was allegedly dropped after he paid outstanding rent and $325 in fees.

Warnock’s church’s landlord tactics are especially noteworthy because Warnock had campaigned in 2020 on eviction protection. During his first Senate campaign, he criticized his political opponents for not going along with federal housing pandemic subsidies, accusing them of being “clearly only concerned with serving their own interests.”

During his time in the Senate, Warnock has more than doubled his income. Warnock’s reported 2021 income encompassed a Senate salary ($164,816), a church salary ($120,964), a church housing allowance ($7,417 per month), and a book deal ($243,750), along with speaking fees ($5,750).

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