Habitat's Selection Criteria -
Interested in applying for a home?
You will be considered for a Habitat home if you meet the following criteria:
- Need — You will be considered for a Habitat home if your present housing is not adequate, or if you are unable to obtain adequate housing through other conventional means. Lack of adequate housing may include problems with the present structure; water, electrical or sewage service systems; heating system, or failure to meet city property maintenance standards. Also taken into consideration are the number, the ages and the gender of children compared to the number of bedrooms in your present home.
- Willingness to Partner — A family must be willing to participate in the Habitat program, to include make payments, and perform sweat equity work/education. Sweat equity is designed to produce a feeling of partnership in the program and to provide an important learning opportunity for a new homebuyer in areas such as the home-building process, community contribution and relationship building, and home management/maintenance.
- Residency — You must have lived OR worked in Douglas County for at least one year. You must be a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident.
- Ability to Pay — The percentage of your monthly income that you currently spend on housing may be considered to determine need. You will be required to openly and fully discuss your financial situation. All information will be considered confidential. You will be considered if your annual total income is between 30-80% of the median income for Douglas County .
Not Less Than
Not more than
Are you financially prepared for owning a Douglas County Habitat home?
- Is the total of your debt (with the exception of a car, student loans, and medical debts) $1,000 or less?
- If you have charged-off debts or debts in collections (with the exception of medical debts), have you paid them off to $250 or less?
- Is the total of all your monthly long-term payments combined (all debts, including car note and medical debts, plus your car insurance) less than 20 percent of your gross income? To calculate this, divide your payments by your monthly gross income. The number will be lower than .2 if your payment is less than 20 percent.*
- If you have declared bankruptcy, has your bankruptcy been discharged for three years? If your bankruptcy was dismissed, have you paid off all of the debts in the bankruptcy?
* If you are planning to apply for a Habitat home, you must keep the combination of your long-term payments lower than 20 percent of your income. While you are waiting to apply, you should keep in mind that any purchases with large, monthly payments (e.g., car payments plus insurance, furniture payments, etc.) are likely to push you over the 20 percent limit. You should be very frugal with your purchases of large items when preparing to apply for a Habitat home.
If you (and your co-applicant, if you have one) answered “no” to any of the above questions, please revisit us when you can answer “yes” to all of them . If you feel you need assistance with financial issues, we suggest you read The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey or contact the Consumer Credit Counseling Service at 1-800-251-CCCS or www.ccsinc.org.
If you would like to learn more about homeownership at our next applicant meeting, email programs@douglascountyhabitat.org , with the following information in the body:
First and Last Name
Address/City/Zip
Home Phone
Cell Phone & Comments (optional)
You may also call 770-489-8883 to provide the information. We will email and/or send you a postcard to notify you of our next meeting. We do not have a date for the next applicant meeting and you will not hear from Douglas County Habitat for Humanity Habitat until we set a date for the meeting.
©2008 Douglas County Habitat for Humanity
P.O.Box 2211 Douglasville,Ga 30133 Phone770-489-8883 Fax 770-942-5876