Suppose we put an object in each ganghouse, some sort of crucible on which you can sacrifice an item for a limited-time benefit to everyone wearing your emblem.
Example: You place a rope and grapple on the crucible, for the next <timeframe> everyone who is wearing the badge can move as if they had a rope and grapple without actually needing one in inventory.
Another: You place Darkbane on the crucible, for the next <timeframe> everyone who is wearing the badge additionally gets <some amount of> prev and dodge.
The higher level, more hard to get, or interesting the item, the greater the benefit. The house level could also potentially effect either the potency or duration of the effects.
The idea here is to find a sink for the glut of items that shows up in the realm. Eventually we'll have more than enough dread harvests, why not have the choice of burning one for a one time group benefit that helps you get over the next objective? You could even do things like "you can only enter this area if this effect is up and on your emblem" to force a group to farm something to get into that really nice scripting area. There's a lot of potential here.