
Tyler Perry Donates $2.75 Million to Help Low-Income Seniors
By Movieguide® Contributor
Producer, actor and writer Tyler Perry is donating $2.75 million to older homeowners in Atlanta, Georgia, to relieve pressure from increasing real estate taxes, ensuring they can stay in their homes.
City, county and school taxes have increased in Atlanta over the years due to gentrification and improved prosperity. Even slight increases to these taxes can cause the cost of living to become too high for those living on a fixed income, forcing them to move away.
Atlanta is aware of this issue and laments the loss that comes with its recent prosperity.
“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 the previous years,” Atlanta’s mayor said.
“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,” he added.
More than 300 low-income seniors currently owe taxes, which Perry’s donation will cover.
Perry has also committed to covering any increase in taxes over the next 20 years for 100 low-income senior residents. He has already donated $750,000 for the first year and has pledged $500,000 each year over the next four years to shield these residents from increasing taxes.
While Perry is not from Atlanta, the city has become his adopted home as it houses his production company Tyler Perry Studios.
Perry has a history of using his resources to help struggling communities. During the height of the pandemic, Perry covered the bill for elderly shoppers at 29 grocery stores in New Orleans and 44 Kroger stores in the Atlanta area. In another act of kindness, Perry donated 1,000 Kroger gift cards to the Atlanta police following the death of George Floyd in 2020 which sparked nationwide unrest. Atlanta police went door to door handing these gift cards out to bring peace and unity to a shattered community.
Movieguide® previously reported:
The producer-actor-writer Tyler Perry wants to bring unity to a shattered community in Atlanta, Georgia.
The creator of the MADEA movie franchise donated 1,000 Kroger’s supermarket gift cards to be handed out by the Atlanta Police Department.
Photos posted by the Atlanta Police Department showed police officers going door to door with the donations from Perry.
“This is about the good police officers who do their job well every day, some of whom are my personal friends,” Perry 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.”
The Atlanta PD were grateful for this gift and other donations.
“500 food boxes were distributed to families in need this morning during the grocery giveaway event at the Dunbar Rec Center,” the Atlanta Police Department said in a tweet. “@tylerperry donated 1,000 Kroger gift cards to give out to the community. Thanks to all of those stopped by & to our partner agencies. #APDCares #WeLoveATL”
Perry’s strong connection to Atlanta and his desire for unity between the police and the citizens of Atlanta became the reason for his decision to give back to the city he now calls home.
“Atlanta has been the dream. It has been the promised land,” he said. “So when I got here, this whole state and city has been amazing to me and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”
Perry’s movies often have strong faith-based elements and Christian worldviews. His 2008 FAMILY THAT PREYS was one of Movieguide®’s Top 10 Movies for Mature Audiences.
Movieguide® awarded THE FAMILY THAT PREYS four stars for quality and a -1 for content.
Regrettably, Perry’s more recent movies have drifted away from faith and have included some abhorrent content. Please pray that Perry lives out his Christian faith in word and deed, including his movies.
You can read reviews of two of his better movies here:
TYLER PERRY’S HOUSE OF PAYNE: THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT