Mobile, Ala., man fights public housing eviction - Calhoun Ellis - Brief Article

Jet, August 30, 1993

A Mobile, Ala., man has engaged in a yearlong fight with the city housing board after it ordered him evicted from his public housing apartment.

Calhoun Ellis, 69, was told he would have to vacate his low-income apartment for failure to report an $18.41 monthly pension check. Ellis is a retired truck driver who said his income includes a monthly Social Security check and a pension check from the Teamster's Union. He has lived in the A.F. Owens housing development since 1981.

He said he began having trouble with the board when he decided to speak up for tenants, rights. Ellis is a member of the Mobile Client Council, a public housing organization.

In 1984, he filed a suit against the board for an electrical fire in his apartment.

"I won't bow down to them, nor will I stay quiet on the condition of some of these apartments. I've gone around to these housing projects and told the tenants what rights they have. And they (the Housing Board members) don't like it."