Neighbors rally to help Powderhorn Park woman buy home she has rented nearly 20 years
Linda Taylor of Minneapolis received a notice to vacate her Powderhorn Park rental home of nearly 20 years at the end of January. Her landlord wanted to sell. Taylor, a 70-year-old retiree who had raised her five children in the Phillips and Powderhorn communities, didn't know where to go.
She happened to tell a neighbor of her plight. Word got around the block that Taylor, who was always volunteering in the neighborhood and chatting up passersby from her porch, needed help. Soon, neighbors helped her broach a pact with landlord Greg Berendt: If he would give Taylor until the end of June, they would help raise enough money to buy her home. As of May 31, a full month ahead of deadline, Taylor officially closed on the house at 10th Avenue S. and E. 36th Street after raising $275,000
She said Thursday that she hasn't yet fully digested the impassioned grassroots campaign that kept her in the neighborhood — involving a petition, block party fundraiser, art sale, pro bono work by real estate agent Shari Seifert and copious small donations from people who were touched by her story.. Longfellow's Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, whose Stepping Out in Faith committee works on housing issues in south Minneapolis, threw in six figures.
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https://www.startribune.com/linda-taylor-successfully-buys-powderhorn-park-rental-home-after-neighbors-rally/600178632/
= new reply since forum marked as read
A Minneapolis woman was about to be evicted. Neighbors bought her home for her.
The community raised $275,000 to buy Linda Taylor’s house, where she has lived for nearly 20 years
By Sydney Page
June 13, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Linda Taylor was given two months’ notice from her landlord to vacate the Minneapolis house she has proudly called home for nearly two decades. ... “It felt like the world had been pulled from under me,” said Taylor, 70. “My house means everything to me.” ... She initially owned the house, but she sold it when she fell prey to a real estate deal she didn’t understand, she said, and has rented the home for about 15 years.
Earlier this year, Taylor received an unexpected notice from her landlord to leave her white stucco home in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood, just a few miles south of downtown, by April 1. Her landlord wanted to sell the house and was asking for $299,000 — a sum Taylor could not afford. ... “I could not sleep, I could not eat,” said Taylor, who lives alone in the two-bedroom house. “I felt really defeated.”
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When Taylor’s landlord, Greg Berendt, told her to vacate, it was like “a stone had just dropped on me,” she said. ... He said he would evict her if she didn’t buy the home or leave, she said. Berendt declined an interview request from The Washington Post when reached by phone.
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Neighbors gather in March for a meeting to plan the fundraising efforts. (Andrew Fahlstrom)
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According to Taylor, she originally bought the house in 2004, but she started falling behind on payments and felt she was tricked into signing the house back over to the previous owner, who allowed her to stay on as a renter. In 2006, after her landlord was caught in a mortgage fraud scheme — which affected more than 45 homes, including hers — Berendt purchased the house. ... He raised her rent twice during the pandemic, Taylor said, and let repairs and maintenance issues linger. ... Several times over the years, Taylor — who has five children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren — went to social services and applied for programs and grants geared toward renters who want to buy their homes. ... “Every time I tried to buy it, I ran into a ton of different walls,” Taylor said, adding that although she knew “my children would always support me,” they were not in a position to offer significant financial help.
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CORRECTION
An earlier version of this story included an incorrect date for Taylor’s deadline to purchase her home. The date is June 30. This story has been corrected.
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By Sydney Page
Sydney Page is a reporter who writes for The Washington Post’s Inspired Life blog, a collection of stories about humanity. She has been a contributor to The Post since 2018. Twitter https://twitter.com/sydneypage95
