Tyler Perry is helping low-income Atlanta seniors avoid eviction due to rising property values. Tyler Perry helps Atlanta seniors.
According to PEOPLE, Perry, 53, is contributing $750,000 to protect low-income seniors in the city, particularly those near Tyler Perry Studios, from being displaced.
According to the source, Perry’s donation will “pay off all back property taxes for every low-income senior” in the city, including county and school taxes. Rising property taxes have displaced longtime Atlanta residents.
Perry’s generosity would freeze property taxes for 100 low-income Atlanta seniors for 20 years by donating $500,000 annually for five years.
The source said this ongoing payment will cover property tax hikes over the next two decades.
Perry asked Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens for help. The source said Invest Atlanta Partnership, the city’s economic development charity, will manage the monies.
“When I set out to help someone, it is my intention to do just that,” Perry remarked at the 2021 Oscars after receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. I just want to connect with others.
Perry recalled a homeless woman he met years before who wanted shoes instead of money. “It stopped me cold because I remember being homeless and having one pair of shoes with the heel bending over,” he added.
Perry led her to the clothing section in his studio.
“I’m waiting for her to look up and she’s staring down, she finally looks up, she’s got tears in her eyes, [and] she said, ‘Thank you Jesus, my feet are off the ground,’” he recounted. I remember her saying, ‘I thought you would hate me for asking.’ How can I hate you when I was you? Can I dislike you?
Perry added, “My mother taught me to shun hate. She taught me not to judge.”
“And in this time, with all of the internet and social media and algorithms and everything that encourages us to think a certain way, the 24-hour news cycle, it is my desire that all of us would teach our kids, and I want to remember just resist hate, don’t hate anybody,” he continued. Hate nobody.