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Committee approves $5M vacant-school conversion fund to help municipalities convert closed schools into housing

Joint Committee on Housing and Economic Development · March 3, 2026

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Summary

The committee approved LD 2164 to establish a $5 million annual Vacant School Housing Conversion Fund administered by the Maine Redevelopment Land Bank Authority to provide technical assistance and last-gap grants for municipal vacant-school reuse, with reporting requirements and municipal consent provisions.

Analysts told the committee LD 2164 would establish a Vacant School Housing Conversion Program and Fund in the Maine Redevelopment Land Bank Authority with a nonlapsing $5,000,000 annual appropriation. The fund would provide technical and financial assistance to municipalities seeking to convert vacant municipal school buildings into residential housing, including units dedicated as affordable housing under terms to be set in a memorandum of understanding between the authority and the municipality.

Tuck O'Brien, executive director of the Maine Redevelopment Land Bank Authority, explained the authority's role as a municipal partner: the authority typically works only with municipalities that opt in and pursues projects that "are stuck"—those that have done planning work and require last-gap subsidy to get to a viable RFP and construction phase. O'Brien said the grants are intended as direct project subsidies to fill capital-stack gaps rather than as loans.

Committee members raised technical clarifications: whether the fund applies only to municipally owned school buildings or also to buildings owned by school districts, whether the list of financed activities should be limited to financial (versus technical) assistance, and whether the annual report should allow the committee to propose legislation in response. Senator Bennett offered a reporting amendment to permit committee follow-up, and the amended report passed; minority members filed 'ought not to pass' reports.