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Actor and filmmaker 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 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.
AP News reports the assistance will cover city, county and school taxes. 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.
Tyler Perry will be remembered for the help he gave
While his portrayals may be up for debate, Perry’s life-changing good deeds for not only those inside his orbit at Tyler Perry Studios, but the community at large reflects the lifelong bonds and connections he brings with him on stage and on screen.
In 2009, when 88-year-old Atlanta resident Rosa Lee Ransby and her 4-year-old great-granddaughter escaped alive from a fire that destroyed the home she owned for 40+ years Perry heard about it from a local news channel and visited Ransby’s home and offered to rent a house for her on the same street, with utilities and furniture provided.
Also in 2009, he made the largest-ever individual contribution—$1 million dollars—to the NAACP. He also reportedly once paid Cicely Tyson one million dollars for a day’s worth of work.
In December 2018, the movie mogul covered $434,000 worth of layaways for an estimated 1,500 people at two Walmarts in Atlanta ahead of the holidays.
In June of 2020, Perry volunteered to cover funeral expenses for Rayshard Brooks, a Black man killed in police custody.
Perry paid for all the groceries belonging to elderly shoppers at 44 Kroger stores in Atlanta and 29 Winn Dixie stores in his native New Orleans in April 2020.
E! Online reports Perry’s friend LaShun Pace, a premier Gospel singer, was in poor health and Perry purchased a $350,000 home not far from Atlanta for his mom, where many members of the Pace family grew up.
When Perry learned that a group of 65 children from a daycare of mostly non-White kids were not allowed to return to a suburban Philadelphia swim club due to racism, he gifted the entire group a trip to Walt Disney World with all expenses paid.
In his latest endeavor to preserve the rich history of Atlanta, Perry’s funds will be administered by Invest Atlanta Partnership, the nonprofit wing of Atlanta’s economic development authority.