Renting in Blackville? Here's What You Need to Know Before You Sign

Blackville Rental Market Overview

Blackville, SC is a small Barnwell County town along U.S. Route 78, roughly 31 miles east of Aiken and 15 miles west of Bamberg, with South Carolina Highway 3 running about 9 miles southeast to Barnwell, the county seat. Research for this guide, checked September 2026, identified three rental communities carrying a "Blackville, SC 29817" address: Blackville Gardens Apartments (5519 and 5539 Hilda Rd.), Hampton Apartments (1136 Hampton Ave.), and Beaver Dam, a public-housing development the South Carolina Regional Housing Authority No. 3 (SCRHA3) lists in its own Barnwell County property directory alongside Lincoln Park in neighboring Williston -- the same directory this guide's own Barnwell, SC page already cites for that city's Litchfield Apartments. Checking each checkable address against the U.S. Census Bureau's public geocoder found all three -- both Blackville Gardens buildings and Hampton Apartments -- resolving cleanly inside the incorporated Town of Blackville, a cleaner result than this guide found in several nearby Barnwell County towns.

None of the three communities publishes rent on its own site. A public affordable-housing aggregator describes both Blackville Gardens and Hampton Apartments as "subsidized" and voucher-accepting, with no specific rent or income-limit figure given for either. SCRHA3's own site names Beaver Dam only in a bare property directory entry, with no address, unit count, or income limit disclosed -- less detail than SCRHA3 published for its Barnwell city property, Litchfield Apartments, elsewhere on the same site.

Common Lease Terms in Blackville

With no community in Blackville publishing a full lease or fee schedule, what's confirmed comes from each property's own aggregator listing and from SCRHA3's own public-housing framework rather than a single primary lease document:

• Blackville Gardens Apartments (5519 and 5539 Hilda Rd.) is listed on a public affordable-housing aggregator as offering 1-to-3-bedroom units with subsidized rent and Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher acceptance; the aggregator gives no specific rent figure or income-limit table for the property
• Hampton Apartments (1136 Hampton Ave.) carries the same "subsidized" designation on the same aggregator, also with no published rent or income-limit figure
• Beaver Dam, the one community independently named on a government source (SCRHA3's own property directory), is public housing, where rent is set by household income under HUD rules rather than a standard market lease -- SCRHA3's own site gives no address, unit count, or waitlist status for the property beyond the bare directory entry
• All three addresses this guide could check confirm to Blackville town limits under the Census Bureau's geocoder, so the open question in this market isn't which government has jurisdiction -- it's confirming rent, eligibility, and lease terms directly with each property or with SCRHA3 (803-259-3588) before applying

Local Tenant Protections

South Carolina law provides the baseline for tenant rights, but Blackville may have additional local ordinances that affect your lease.

• South Carolina law preempts local rent control statewide (S.C. Code §27-39-60) -- no South Carolina city or county, including Blackville, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property
• The Town of Blackville's own website lists a "Code and Zoning" page, but as of September 2026 that page surfaces only a navigation menu -- no linked ordinance text, zoning map, or PDF -- and this guide could not locate a Blackville-specific rental-registration or landlord-licensing ordinance on Municode, eCode360, American Legal, or the town's own site
• Checking Blackville Gardens Apartments, Hampton Apartments, Blackville Town Hall (5983 Lartigue St.), and several downtown Main Street addresses against the U.S. Census Bureau's public geocoder found every one of them resolving cleanly inside the incorporated Town of Blackville -- unlike Edgefield, Johnston, and Barnwell, where this guide's own research found at least one similarly addressed rental property, school district office, or employer sitting instead on unincorporated county land
• Beaver Dam, the SCRHA3-managed public-housing community identified for this guide, is governed by HUD public-housing rules rather than a municipal ordinance -- confirm specifics directly with SCRHA3 (803-259-3588)

For full South Carolina statewide tenant rights, see our South Carolina tenant rights guide.

Fees You May Encounter in Blackville

Because no community in Blackville with its own published fee schedule could be verified, there's no sitewide fee table to publish here.

• Blackville Gardens Apartments and Hampton Apartments both carry only a "subsidized" designation on a public affordable-housing aggregator -- no application fee, pet fee, or deposit amount is published for either
• Beaver Dam, governed by SCRHA3's HUD public-housing rules, sets any tenant charges under that framework rather than a standard fee schedule -- confirm specifics directly with SCRHA3 (803-259-3588)
• No statutory cap applies to application, pet, or administrative fees in South Carolina; the lease itself sets the amount (see the state baseline above)

A "subsidized" label on an aggregator listing isn't a fee schedule -- with no published figures anywhere in this market to check a number against, getting every fee in writing before signing is the only way to know the real cost.

Population Decline, Healing Springs, and Blackville's Local Economy

Blackville's Census-reported population moved unevenly across the last three decades before settling into a clear decline: 2,688 in 1990, a peak of 2,973 in 2000, then 2,406 in 2010 (-19.1%) and 1,923 in 2020 (-20.1%) -- a combined 35.3% drop from the 2000 peak, all of it occurring in the two decades since. Unlike nearby Edgefield's own reported population swing, which this guide's Edgefield, SC page traced to how a federal prison's group-quarters population was counted differently across census cycles, Blackville has no comparable large institutional facility to explain its numbers as a counting artifact -- the decline reads as genuine, sustained population loss rather than a census-mechanics quirk. What caused it is less clear: no specific plant closure, employer departure, or other single documented event turned up in public sources for this guide. More recent American Community Survey estimates add noise rather than clarity on the underlying economy -- DataUSA's 2024 pull shows median household income falling 16.7% in a single year to $21,742, and the number of employed residents falling 20.7% (from 812 to 644) over the same span, swings large enough for a town this size to reflect the ACS's wide small-sample margin of error rather than a precisely measured one-year collapse. City-data.com's own 2024 median household income estimate, $22,691, sits close to but not identical to DataUSA's figure; both sources agree the town's poverty rate is roughly 32.9%, well above the national average. DataUSA and city-data.com both identify manufacturing as Blackville's largest employment sector (roughly a fifth of the workforce), ahead of retail trade and health care and social assistance, though no specific manufacturer operating inside town limits could be independently confirmed for this guide.

Blackville's best-known landmark sits just outside town: God's Acre Healing Springs, a natural spring whose deeded owner of record is listed as "God Almighty" rather than a person or organization, drawing visitors who believe the water has healing properties. Downtown, OpenStreetMap's own business-location data confirms a small but real commercial core along Main Street and nearby streets -- Palm Pantry Grocery (568 Main St.), Dollar Plus Beauty Supply (517 Main St.), a Dollar Tree, a Family Dollar, several hair salons, a self-service laundry, a package store, and Gamble's Seasonal Produce, a farm stand on Solomon Blatt Avenue, the street named for the town's most famous native son. Blackville is also home to Blackville-Hilda High School and Blackville-Hilda Junior High, serving both the town and the neighboring town of Hilda, and the area includes an Amish and Mennonite community substantial enough to support its own Calvary Fellowship Mennonite school -- though this guide could not independently confirm the community's size or economic footprint beyond that.

Common Issues Renters Face in Blackville

These are the most frequent considerations this guide's research turned up for renters in Blackville:

• No community identified in Blackville -- all three run on subsidized or voucher-based arrangements -- publishes independently verifiable market-rate pricing, so comparing "Blackville rent" to a neighboring town's published figures isn't possible from public sources alone
• Beaver Dam, the one community named directly on a government source, appears only in a bare SCRHA3 directory entry with no address, unit count, or income-limit figure -- confirming basic details means calling SCRHA3 directly rather than relying on its website
• Blackville's population decline is real and sustained (2,973 in 2000 to 1,923 in 2020, -35.3%), but no single documented cause was identified -- a renter weighing a long lease here is working with less certainty about the town's future trajectory than a market with a known driver of decline
• ACS-based economic estimates for a town this size swing sharply year to year (a 16.7% single-year income drop, a 20.7% single-year employment drop, per DataUSA's 2024 pull) -- worth treating as noise rather than a precise measurement of any single year's change

Negotiating Your Lease in Blackville

South Carolina is landlord-favorable with minimal statutory protections, and Blackville's rental market has no independently published market-rate price to benchmark against at any of its three identified communities.

• Confirming current income limits, voucher acceptance, and unit availability directly with Blackville Gardens Apartments and Hampton Apartments is the only way to establish eligibility, since neither publishes a rent or income-limit figure online
• Calling SCRHA3 (803-259-3588) directly for Beaver Dam's address, unit count, and waitlist status is worth doing given how little the housing authority's own site discloses about the property
• Comparing a quoted Blackville figure against Barnwell or Bamberg, both nearby South Carolina markets with somewhat more independently published pricing, can help gauge whether a specific quote is reasonable for the area
• Requesting the fee schedule -- application, deposit, pet, and any move-in fee -- in writing before signing is a reasonable step, since no community-wide schedule exists to check it against

A community with no independently verifiable pricing isn't automatically a red flag in a market this small and this subsidized -- but it does mean every figure needs confirming directly with the leasing office or housing authority before signing anything.