Tyler Perry to donate $2.5M to help older Atlanta homeowners

Credit: @Local12 via Twitter

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.

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.

The funds will be administered by Invest Atlanta Partnership, the nonprofit wing of Atlanta's economic development authority.