Albany County Land Bank Corporation
OUR MISSION
Facilitate the process of acquiring, improving & redistributing vacant properties
Eliminate the harms & liabilities caused by such properties
Return properties to productive use
Remain consistent with the municipality’s redevelopment and comprehensive plans
The Land Bank acquires tax-foreclosed, vacant, or abandoned properties throughout Albany County and disposes of them to responsible buyers through an application process that includes multi-layered review. All property sales are approved by the Land Bank’s Board of Directors. Properties purchased from the Land Bank typically require rehabilitation which is the responsibility of the buyer. As part of the Land Bank’s property purchase application, buyers are required to provide a scope of work, proposed budget, and rehabilitation timeline. Land Bank staff reviews these aspects of the application to ensure that the Buyer has a fundamental understanding of the level of rehabilitation, time frame and associated costs needed to rehabilitate vacant and abandoned properties in order to increase the likelihood of a successful outcome for the Land Bank’s mission, the buyer, and the community.
About the Albany County Land Bank Corporation
The Albany County Land Bank was established in 2014 by Albany County to facilitate the process of acquiring, improving, and redistributing tax-foreclosed, vacant or abandoned properties. The Land Bank is a nonprofit organization committed to revitalizing neighborhoods and strengthening communities throughout Albany County. The Land Bank uses grant funding to support property demolitions, acquisitions, stabilizations, lot improvements, and rehabilitation projects and works in partnership with state and local government, non-profits, residents, community groups, and responsible developers and investors to return properties to productive use and support community development.
A Statement from the Albany County Land Bank
At the Albany County Land Bank, we join with the many other entities working to ensure that injustice will not be tolerated and that as an organization, we do our part in helping address some of the disparities that are evident in our nation as it pertains to systemic racism.
We recognize the injustices of institutional discriminatory housing and lending practices that have systemically harmed communities of color and plagued our country and region for far too long.
We recognize our role in creating meaningful opportunities for people of all races, colors, national origins, religion, sexual-orientation, familial status and disability to prosper.
We stand together with African Americans and other members of underserved communities to confront the disparities created by racial and economic injustices and we reaffirm our commitment to building equitable and inclusive neighborhoods.
We are committed to listening and learning and being part of the broader discourse. We are also committed to action.
We recently formed an initiative to ensure that we are applying our resources effectively to address systemic disparities, support underserved populations and strengthen underserved communities.
Because of the recent national and local events, we are accelerating this initiative and will call upon financial institutions, foundations, nonprofits, for-profits and all levels of government to partner with us so that we can continue to eliminate blight while creating more fair and just opportunities for homeownership in our county.
We are committed to do what we can to assist with improving quality of life, providing affordable housing, and helping our underserved communities recover from the disproportionate economic damage resulting from the current public health crisis and racial tension.
The Albany County Land Bank can do more. We will do more.