GREENVILLE — Approaching Sturtevant Street from Pendleton Road in West Greenville on Friday morning, about 100 people donning hardhats can be seen working on one of four Habitat for Humanity houses.
The nonprofit organization is planning to build nine houses on land donated by developer Fitch Irick Corporation and contractor Creative Builders, Inc.Â
On Sept. 29, the companies joined Habitat for Humanity of Greenville to assist in building four of those houses. The organization's leader, Monroe Free, said all nine houses will likely be done by next summer.
Each house will be roughly 1,100 square feet, built to EarthCraft standards — which Free said will ensure lower utility bills for the families who live in them.
Four of nine homes are under construction on land donated to Habitat for Humanity of Greenville by Fitch Irick and Creative Builders. Emily Garcia/Staff
The houses will be mortgaged to families whose income is between 30 to 80 percent of the area's median income, as calculated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. However, Free guarantees that as part of Habitat for Humanity's program no family will pay more than 30 percent of their monthly income on their mortgage.Â
Four of the nine houses already have families committed to buy.Â
Free said there are roughly 35 families, at any given time, in the pipeline to buy a house through Habitat for Humanity.Â
But homebuying through the organization isn't swift. Habitat for Humanity requires soon-to-be homebuyers to complete 200 hours of "sweat equity." According to Free, those hours will include budgeting and finance classes, as well as 100 hours of home building "either on their house or on somebody else's house."
Completing the sweat equity program typically takes about 18 months, Free said, but he's seen it done in nine.
The gift of land
Fitch Irick and Creative Builders donated roughly 1.7 acres to Habitat for Humanity of Greenville in 2021, after they finished development on Assembly Apartments — an affordable apartment complex off West Blue Ridge Drive — and identified a remaining parcel that wasn't going to be used.
"We've had this property, and we didn't really know what to do with it," Charles Irick, the chief development officer of Fitch Irick, said. "Apartments were not going to work here."
Irick said Will McCauley, the president of Creative Builders, suggested donating the land to Habitat for Humanity and, to Irick, "it made perfect sense" because it provided an opportunity to create more affordable housing.
This is the first time the development company has donated land, but Irick said he hopes it will have more opportunities to do it again.
As Greenville grows, the increasing value of land contributes to the unaffordability of housing.
Historically, Free said Habitat for Humanity of Greenville hasn't received many land donations. Over his 15 years with the organization, he's seen four donations of land but three of those were in the last three years.
Free said the impact of the land donation extends beyond the nine families who will live in these new homes because "it sets a model out there for other companies to follow that can make an impact on affordable housing."
