Nation
Posted by Charlie Kirk Staff - 10.12.22

Hershel Walker Steps Up Following Bombshell Report Warnock's Church Seeks to Evict Tenants: 'I Will Pay'

Hershel Walker Steps Up Following Bombshell Report Warnock's Church Seeks to Evict Tenants: 'I Will Pay'

Nation
Posted by Charlie Kirk Staff - 10.12.22

Georgia Republican Senate nominee Hershel Walker has responded to a bombshell report on Tuesday accusing his Democratic opponent, incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, of seeking to evict tenants from an apartment complex.

According to a report by the Washington Free Beacon, Warnock’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the senator serves as a senior pastor, “drawing a salary as well as a generous $7,417 monthly housing allowance—has moved to evict disadvantaged residents from an apartment building it owns, one of whom it tried to push out on account of merely $28.55 in past-due rent.”

This, after Warnock noted on Twitter as he campaigned for his office in 2020: “Unemployment benefits have expired, rent is due today, and many Georgia families are at risk of eviction in the middle of a pandemic,” adding that by failing to act, his political opponents were “clearly only concerned with serving their own interests.”

The Washington Free Beacon’s Andrew Kerr adds:

The church is the 99 percent owner of the Columbia Tower at MLK Village in downtown Atlanta, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, which describe the building as a home for the “chronically homeless” and those with “mental disabilities.”

A dozen eviction lawsuits were filed against Columbia Tower residents over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, the first one in February 2020 and, most recently, in September 2022. The total sum of past-due rent cited in the lawsuits is just $4,900, a figure that could have been covered by one of Warnock’s monthly housing stipends from the church.

Kerr went on to report that Warnock’s church isn’t in need of funds; according to financial statements, the church ended 2021 with “cash equivalents” in excess of $1.2 million, so it is not clear why the house of worship is being so aggressive in attempting to collect rent and/or evict residents.

The reporter noted that in a tweet: “Warnock’s church has the resources to help these people. It pays Warnock a $7,417 monthly housing allowance as he serves in the Senate, and the church’s audited financial statements obtained by @FreeBeacon show it ended 2021 with cash and “cash equivalents” exceeding $1.2 mil.”

It was not patently obvious that Warnock’s church even owned the apartment building, which appears to have been by design. Only after Kerr dug through several layers of paperwork did he discover that Warnock appeared in an official capacity: “Ebenezer Baptist Church owns the building through a network of shell organizations connected to the Ebenezer Building Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity that delegates all management duties to the church and identifies Warnock as its principal officer in its IRS Form 990 filings.”

One resident, Phillip White, 69, a Vietnam War veteran, told Kerr, “They treat me like a piece of s**t. They’re not compassionate at all.” He said the church has moved to evict him twice; the first time he paid $179 in back rent plus another $325 in fees.

The report led to a scathing response from Walker, who stepped up and said he would take care of the delinquent rent payments.

“I have never known a preacher that likes abortion even after birth, won’t pay his child support and evicts poor people to the street. I will pay the $4500 in past due rents listed in this news article to keep @ReverendWarnock from evicting these people,” Walker said.

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