City forcing Navy vet out of storage building he’s called home for 7 years

NEWTON, N.C. — The city of Newton is forcing a U.S. Navy veteran out of a storage building in Newton that he’s called home for the last seven years.

The homeowner built the building for John Eller; however, city officials said they didn’t know someone was living inside the storage building.

The property owner said she did get permission in 2018 to run power to the building along North Caldwell Avenue to help the veteran.

Eller said earlier this week, code enforcement, and police came to his door and told him he would have to move after getting a complaint from a neighbor.

Staff identified violations of code enforcement and zoning ordinances.

“They didn’t like the way I was living,” he said. “I don’t ask for much. I don’t bother anybody. You don’t even know I’m here. All I want is to be left alone.”

Eller, who served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, is friends with the owner of the property, Janet Nance Cuthbertson.

The two have known each other since high school.

When she found out he didn’t have a place to live in 2018, she suggested the outbuilding and had power run to it. She has the paperwork she got at the time.

“We were on the understanding that once it met code, that it could be lived in by the county,” Cuthbertson said. “It can be on county property. It can’t on city property.”

The city of Newton said it received multiple concerns and a code enforcement complaint about people living in makeshift structures on the property. They said the original permit was for a storage shed, not for someone’s home.

Cuthbertson said the city hasn’t set a deadline for Eller to be out of the building but has told her power will be cut off if he doesn’t move out.

When asked where he will go, Eller said, “A tent in the woods. That’s the only option I have.”

The city of Newton is trying to help and has already reached out to the Western Piedmont Council of Government’s homelessness response team to see if they can assist Eller.

The property owner trying to bring the property into compliance, the city said.

“The City of Newton’s priority is to apply ordinances consistently and fairly while ensuring the safety, health, and welfare of residents,” city officials said Friday in a news release.

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