Apply for Homeownership

It’s More Than a Home. It’s a Home Base.

Applications are closed. Please click here to get on a list for future packets.

Habitat offers an unparalleled opportunity to help families with low income attain homeownership. We encourage you to complete the homeownership qualification form and allow our staff to determine whether you qualify. For families who qualify, but have credit or other issues that will prevent them from being successful, our family services staff can work with you on credit and other areas to assist you in meeting eligibility requirements for the homeownership program.

If you meet the requirements to qualify, the key to your success is self-discipline and the willingness to do the work required to partner with Habitat to attain homeownership.

Qualifying for a Home

To qualify for a Habitat home, an individual or family must:

Be living and/or working in Greenville County for at least one year
Be living below the poverty level (earning 30-80% of the regional area median income)
Have a minimum income of $45,000
If employed, be employed at least one year or more on your current job. If unemployed but receiving other sources of income, two consecutive years of verifiable income documentation is required.
Have a definite housing need: be living in substandard or crowded conditions or paying excessive rent in relation to income
Have sufficient income available to be able to enter into an agreement with Habitat to pay the monthly mortgage. If credit issues exist, those must be addressed through pre-purchase counseling with our staff before you can receive approval for participation in Habitat’s homeownership program.
Complete Habitat’s homeowner preparation program, provided at no cost by Habitat to prepare applicants for homeownership. This includes courses in personal finance, budgeting, mortgages, credit, home maintenance and repair, conflict resolution, being a good neighbor, and others.
Be willing to complete a minimum of 200 hours of volunteer service to Habitat. Known as “sweat equity,” this includes working on the construction of the prospective homeowner’s home, other Habitat homes and possibly volunteering at other nonprofit organizations.

See FAQs for additional information.

The first step to learn whether you qualify is the completion of the homeownership qualification form.

Applications are closed. Please click here to get on a list for future packets. Please put Home Application List in the Header.

Black Home Ownership

In the Fall of 2023, Habitat for Humanity of Greenville launched a community-led initiative to create new pathways to homeownership and family growth for Black people across the county.

The Advancing Black Homeownership Project, which is made possible by a grant from Habitat for Humanity International, is led by, a steering committee including Rev. Stacey Mills, pastor of Mountain View Baptist Church and Executive Director of Greenville Race Equity and Economic Mobility Commission, Rev. Sean Dogan, pastor of Long Branch Baptist Church, Greenville Mayor Knox White, Tamela Spann, vice president of investments for Hollingsworth Funds and Samantha Wallace, Upstate Market Executive for Bank of America. In addition, Habitat hired Joseph Fields to oversee the project.

Habitat Greenville is one of 20 affiliates nationwide selected for the program. Highlights of this new plan include:

Development of a racial-equity lending strategy and property acquisition fund through Habitat Mortgage Solutions, the agency’s community development financial institution.
Financial coaching and counseling for applicants along their homeownership journey, whether they become Habitat homeowners or not.
Research and measurement efforts to identify best practices in areas such as housing innovation, preserving home affordability, and exploring how new and existing programs lead to better outcomes for individuals and families.
Advocacy for policy proposals and legislation that enable millions of people access to affordable homes through Cost of Home, Habitat’s U.S. advocacy campaign..”

Across the country, Black families are less likely to own their own homes than white families. During Habitat’s 45-year history, their work has helped close that homeownership gap as Black homeowners made up 43% of the families who partnered to build with Habitat in Fiscal Year 2021. However, in Greenville County, as throughout the country, there is a significant racial inequity in home ownership overall, with approximately 83% of owner-occupied housing units having white, non-Hispanic householders, compared to 11% black householders and 4% Hispanic householders.

Aspiring Black homeowners are most negatively affected by a system of discriminatory policies and practices that limit access to homeownership.

Part of the reason Greenville County was chosen for the Habitat International grant is because Black homeownership here lags the national average. Black families here are 30 percentage points behind white families when it comes to owning a home. Habitat International invested in Greenville, recognizing the community’s desire to close the gap.

It’s More Than a Home. It’s a Home Base.

Black Home Ownership

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