Neighbors rally to help Powderhorn Park woman buy home she has rented nearly 20 years [View all]
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/