PRESS RELEASE:
Monday, October 24th, 2022
ATLANTA – Today, the Washington Free Beacon reported that the property management company hired by Raphael Warnock’s church to manage Columbia Tower at MLK Village has one of the highest eviction filing rates in the country.
“Few corporate landlords sought to evict more residents in 2021 than the company Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D., Ga.) church partnered with to manage its low-income apartment building.
Columbia Residential manages 49 apartments in the Atlanta area, including Columbia Tower at MLK Village, a low-income apartment building owned by Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Warnock serves as senior pastor. Out of 1,587 corporate landlords across the country, only 30 filed more eviction lawsuits in 2021 than Columbia Residential, records show. The property management company filed 605 eviction actions against its residents in 2021, according to a dataset cited by House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis chairman Rep. James Clyburn (D., S.C.).”
“Columbia Residential has accelerated its rate of filing dispossessory notices in 2022. The company has filed 613 eviction actions in court against residents in 39 of its Atlanta-based properties so far this year, 318 of which remain open as of Sunday. Ebenezer tapped Columbia Residential to manage Columbia Tower “on its behalf,” the property management company told the Washington Free Beacon.”
“Warnock’s church owns 99 percent of Columbia Tower through a network of shell companies linked to a charity it controls, which identifies Warnock as its principal officer. The Georgia Secretary of State’s Securities and Charities Division launched an investigation into Ebenezer’s charity on Oct. 12, seeking to discover why it has been operating in the state without registering with state authorities, the Free Beacon reported.”
“Raphael Warnock continues to dodge important questions Georgia voters need answers to,” said campaign spokesman Will Kiley. “We have copies of the eviction notices. Raphael Warnock claims to be a pastor for the people, the disadvantaged, and the poor. But the actions he and his church have taken say otherwise.”
