Tyler Perry is coming to the aid of a 93-year-old woman at risk of losing the South Carolina home her family has owned since the Civil War.
via: Daily Mail
Josephine Wright from Hilton Head, South Carolina has been embroiled in a legal battle with a land development company called Bailey Point Investment group over her home, which she said has been in her family since the Civil War.
Wright said that the development company offered to buy her home but when she refused, they started harassing and threatening her, even filing a lawsuit to seize control of the property.
While Wright’s fight to keep her home still isn’t over, Perry is building Wright a brand new five-bedroom home for her and her grandchildren to live in, according to TMZ.
Perry – who helped Kerry Washington promote her new book during a tour stop in Atlanta – and his construction crew are slated to begin work in the next few weeks once the permits are squared away.
Wright told local Hilton Head news affiliate WSAV back in May that Bailey Point was trying to get her to sell them her property through a ‘frivolous lawsuit.’
The company says that the porch of her home is somehow on the property they purchased, which is under construction across the street – even though said porch is 22 feet from the road.
Wright – a grandmother to 40, great-grandmother to 50, and great-great-grandmother to 16 – said her husband’s relatives escaped slavery and were freed by Union soldiers, and the home means a great deal to her.
‘I’ve pretty much been a fighter all my life,’ Wright said in the news report, which seemed to have struck a chord with Perry.
While many of her neighbors have taken up her fight against the land developers, Perry pledged his help back in late June.
He posted WSAV’s report on Josphine on his Instagram, stating, ‘”I’ve pretty much been a fighter all my life” said 93 year old Josephine Wright,’ Perry began.
‘Well, that makes two of us. Ms. Wright, please tell where to show up and what you need to help you fight,’ Perry added.
Others like celebrity chef Kardea Brown, Fantasia Taylor and movie producer Will Packer pledged to help in any way also.
Her family launched a GoFundMe to help pay for mounting legal fees for the lawsuit, which has raised $363K to date.
An update from Charise Graves in mid-September revealed that a tree had fallen on the roof of Josephine’s home.
‘After we had an amazing weekend celebrating and honoring Grandma Josephine in Bluffton at the Roots & Rivers Festival and through a powerful yoga session at her home on Sunday, the tree decided to give up and give in,’ Charise said.
‘Grandma Josephine wasn’t home and luckily, no human was injured. I can’t say the same for the house. She sustained 2 holes in her roof,’ she added.
‘Rest assured, Grandma is still all smiles! She knows we are in God’s hands, and no weapons formed against us shall prosper. Not now… Not ever’ she concluded.
