Movie studio owner, actor, producer, and philanthropist Tyler Perry is donating $2.75 million to older homeowners in Atlanta to help ensure they’re able to stay in their homes.
A few weeks ago, Perry, 53, reached out to Atlanta Mayor Andrew Dickens about providing assistance for those residents on fixed incomes who could lose their homes as a result of rising real estate taxes, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Perry, ranked third among the world’s highest-paid entertainers by Forbes, is going to pay the back property taxes for 300 low-income seniors in Atlanta, the newspaper said.
The city is aware of the problem caused by hiking property taxes.
“Rising property taxes has been a leading factor in the displacement of legacy residents, with even modest increases in property taxes disrupting the lives of seniors living on a fixed income,” the City of Atlanta admitted in a press release.
“Atlanta’s growth and prosperity should not come at the expense of our legacy residents—many of whom have been priced out of their homes in previous years,” Mayor Dickens said in a statement. “Tyler Perry has been engaged in our ongoing conversations around legacy resident retention, and he told me he wanted to do something to support these efforts. Thanks to his generosity, more Atlantans will be able to remain in the communities they built.”
The donated funds will be used to pay off all back property taxes for every low-income senior in Atlanta. More than 300 low-income seniors currently owe back taxes. The assistance will cover city, county, and school taxes.
In addition, Perry will also cover any increase in taxes over the next 20 years for 100 low-income older residents. He has already donated $750,000 for the first year to cover the back taxes and any increase in property taxes and has pledged $500,000 each year over the next four years to ensure the residents don’t pay any more in such taxes.
Invest Atlanta Partnership, the nonprofit wing of the City’s economic development authority, will administer the funds.
Making a Difference
As CBN News has reported over the past several years, Perry is known for using his success and wealth to make a positive impact.
In 2021, he was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 93rd Academy Awards for his charity work.
The prize was presented by actor Viola Davis, who highlighted Perry’s kindness, reminding viewers of the moment in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he paid for senior citizens’ groceries.
The filmmaker footed the bill for every elderly person shopping for groceries at 44 Atlanta-based Kroger stores during the supermarket’s senior hour. He did the same for 29 locations in his hometown of New Orleans.
“Tyler knows what it is to be hungry, to be without a home, to feel unsafe and uncertain,” said Davis. “So when he buys groceries for 1,000 of his neighbors, supports a woman’s shelter, or quietly pays tuition for a hard-working student, Tyler is coming from a place of shared experience.”
Much of his motivation to do good, Perry recalled in his acceptance speech, stemmed from a conversation he had with a homeless woman 17 years ago.
When he first noticed her, Perry — standing near his film studio — said he reached in his pocket to hand her some cash. She stopped him, though, and instead asked for shoes. So he took her inside, to the wardrobe area, and gave her a pair of brand new shoes.
Staring down, the woman said, “Thank you, Jesus, my feet are off the ground.”
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That same woman then told Perry that she figured he would “hate” her. Aware of his own past and his own fight to get to where he is now, Perry was struck by her suggestion.
He urged Americans of all colors and creeds to reject the divisiveness promulgated by social media and cable news outlets.
“In this time, with all the internet and social media and algorithms and everything that wants us to think a certain way — the 24-hour news cycle — it is my hope that all of us will teach our kids, and not only remember, but just refuse hate,” Perry said. “Don’t hate anybody.”
“I refuse to hate someone because they are Mexican or because they are black or white or LGBTQ,” he continued. “I refuse to hate someone because they are a police officer. I refuse to hate someone because they are Asian. I would hope we would refuse hate.”
Peacemaker
Following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May of 2020, violence broke out in Atlanta during anti-police protests. The protests grew even more violent after Rayshard Brooks, 27, was shot to death by police outside of a local Wendy’s restaurant.
Through an act of kindness, Perry helped healing begin in his adopted city of Atlanta. He purchased 1,000 Kroger supermarket gift cards and gave them to the Atlanta police to hand out to the community.
“This is about the community that I love, that I live and work in,” Perry said in a statement to The New York Post. “This about good people who are in need of a hand up, not a handout.”
“This is about the good police officers who do their job well every day, some of which are my personal friends,” the statement said. “This is about trying to bridge unity in a city that adopted me and held me up high enough to reach my own branch on the tree of success.”
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