Center for Community Progress Announces Participants in “Land Banks Addressing Housing Insecurity Learning Exchange”

Three land banks selected to join national peer-learning program focused on expanding affordable housing for vulnerable populations.

FLINT, MICHIGAN – The Center for Community Progress today announced the three land banks selected to participate in its inaugural Land Banks Addressing Housing Insecurity Learning Exchange, a program of the National Land Bank Network (NLBN). Made possible through the generous support of the Melville Charitable Trust, the learning exchange will bring together land bank leaders and community partners to develop and strengthen strategies for addressing housing insecurity among vulnerable populations.

The selected land banks participating in the learning exchange are:

• Macon-Bibb County Land Bank Authority (Macon-Bibb County, Georgia)
• Redevelopment Authority of Clearfield County (Clearfield County, Pennsylvania)
• Suffolk County Land Bank Corporation (Suffolk County, New York)

Housing costs are climbing in communities across the country, placing an outsized burden on those with the fewest resources. These organizations were chosen from a competitive applicant pool and represent a diverse group of land banks actively engaged in or planning housing programs serving housing-insecure populations (i.e., people with disabilities, those experiencing homelessness, refugees, immigrants, migrants, asylum seekers, returning citizens, veterans, and senior citizens).

According to the latest NLBN State of Land Banking Survey, more than 70 percent of land banks are working on or planning affordable housing projects, and approximately 50 percent are explicitly serving one or more vulnerable populations. The Land Banks Addressing Housing Insecurity Learning Exchange is designed to accelerate that work.

“Peer-to-peer learning is one of the most powerful tools for scaling solutions that work across the country,” said Brian Larkin, Director of the National Land Bank Network at the Center for Community Progress. “The land banks in this exchange are doing remarkable work to house their most vulnerable neighbors. We are excited to help amplify their successes and lessons learned so they can reach far beyond their community’s borders.”

The learning exchange will convene participants for a 2.5-day in-person site visit in July 2026, hosted in the community of one of the participating land banks. Participant delegations will include land bank staff as well as representatives from partner organizations (e.g., supportive housing providers, local housing funds, housing advocacy groups, and developers).

The program will feature presentations from experts in affordable housing development and finance, and social services; peer discussions on programming, partnership development, and funding; a mobile workshop visiting relevant local project sites; and dedicated time for cross-sector relationship building.

For more information about the Land Banks Addressing Housing Insecurity Learning Exchange, visit communityprogress.org/nlbn/housing-insecurity-learning-exchange.

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About Community Progress: The Center for Community Progress helps people to transform vacant spaces into vibrant places. Since 2010, their team of experts has provided urban, suburban, and rural communities looking to revitalize vacant properties with the tools and resources needed to address those properties at the policy and systems level. As the only national nonprofit dedicated to vacant property revitalization, Community Progress drives change by uncovering and disrupting systems that perpetuate entrenched vacancy and property deterioration. Community Progress has delivered customized, expert guidance to leaders in over 300 communities and provided hundreds of hours of free educational resources as well as leadership programming to help policymakers, practitioners, and community members across the country return properties to productive use. To learn more and get help for your community, visit communityprogress.org.

About NLBN: The National Land Bank Network (NLBN) at the Center for Community Progress connects land bank leaders to the tools, networks, and resources they need to return vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties to productive use. As the first membership-based community of practice for the field of land banking, NLBN supports the over 300 land banks and land banking programs throughout the United States with in-person and online convening, research, technical assistance, and education.