Because of your amazing work at our job sites and your generous financial support, Greenwood Area Habitat for Humanity has been a force for good in our community for 35 years. During that time, the men and women of Greenwood have built and sold over 100 new homes to those in need of low-cost home ownership opportunities. Thank you for all that you have done to help your neighbors!
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We believe that God has a new plan for our ministry in Greenwood. While the original Habitat mission will always be close to our hearts, our affiliation with Habitat for Humanity International has ended. We are not closing or going out of business, but from this point forward our nonprofit ministry will be working under a new name and in new ways. We want to share with you what we are doing and why our name is changing.
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The cost of building a typical Habitat house has fully doubled over the last five years, due entirely to the incredible rise in the cost of building materials. This has had a profound effect for those whom we seek to serve, few of whom can afford to repay these increased costs even over time and at zero interest. To keep our homes affordable to those most in need in our community, we’ve subsidized recent sales, and you would surely understand that we can’t continue to sell houses for less than they cost to build for very much longer.
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We must adapt to help the people of Greenwood find low-cost, long-term housing solutions, and we have come to believe that the best way to do that is not by building new homes that those in need can't afford, but rather by repairing the homes we already have in our community. A recent survey revealed that 60 percent of American homeowners are putting off critical home repairs because they can’t afford to pay for them, making repairing homes the key to restoring our neighborhoods. We believe that home repairs comprise an effective and sustainable solution to our local housing crisis.
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We are excited to announce that, as a new nonprofit ministry named GREENWOOD COMMUNITY HOME REPAIR, we will provide the funds that low-income and elderly homeowners need to buy materials to keep themselves safe, warm and dry. We will conduct the repairs ourselves whenever possible with volunteers working at the direction of licensed staff, but also at times calling upon contractors when necessary. We will arrange an affordable payment plan and charge no interest, just as we once did for our Habitat home buyers. We are excited for the opportunity to meet this need!
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If you have donated money recently to our organization for the purpose of building a home, please know that your funds will still be used as you wished. We will build one last Habitat-style home over the course of 2024 on a lot located on Reynolds Avenue in the City of Greenwood, both to honor your intent but also as a celebration of all that Habitat has meant to our volunteers. We are grateful to you for making this possible, and we look forward to hosting volunteers for one more home building project!
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We know that there are and will be those for whom a low-cost home buying opportunity in something other than a traditional Habitat setting would be beneficial. We are blessed with land in the heart of our city, in the neighborhood known as the Westside, and we intend to act there as a nonprofit real estate developer. Thanks to our partners at VisionGreenwood and the City of Greenwood, an architect and an urban planner have met in depth with the residents of the Westside neighborhood to develop a master plan for this land with the interests of the surrounding community being put first and foremost. According to that plan, which will be published soon, we will develop approximately 40 units of low-cost housing on the land we are holding in trust for the community, alongside family-friendly amenities and limited commercial space. Our hope is to replicate this development project in other parts of the city in the future. We believe that we can grow to house more families than ever before!
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Finally, we are delighted to say that the operation currently known as the Greenwood Habitat ReStore will continue to be your source to purchase or donate home goods and construction materials at its location on Maxwell Avenue. The ReStore will become the Greenwood Community Home Repair Store, and your support will once again enable the purchase of building materials and the hiring of contractors, only now for badly needed home repairs instead of new home construction. We look forward to hosting you at the store as usual!
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Although some changes are happening, much of what you have loved about our ministry is staying the same. You will still be able to carry out your discipleship or service to your community at a construction site, you will still be able to financially support those with housing needs by making a tax-deductible investment in a local nonprofit, and you will still be able to donate to and shop at our thrift store. We’re eager to carry on with God’s work in our community!
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If you would like to apply for home repairs, volunteer on a project, or make a tax-deductible gift to support this ministry, please call 864-223-9399, visit our new web site by clicking here, or e-mail info@greenwoodcommunityhomerepair.org. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram.
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Thank you for helping to make Greenwood an even better place to live!