The Chautauqua County tax foreclosure auction might be canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chautauqua County Land Bank Corp. board discussed Wednesday the possibility that the auction, which was originally scheduled to take place Saturday, June 20, might not happen this year.

Jim Caflisch, board chairman and county Real Property Tax Office director, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s moratorium on evictions and foreclosures is in effect through Aug. 20. Also, Caflisch said the county’s date of redemption — the last day an owner can pay back taxes before losing their property — has been extended to Aug. 7.

“It’s going to be iffy to see if we have an auction,” he said.

Caflisch said there is an available date, Sept. 26, when the auction could be held. However, he said he doesn’t know if the original location for the auction, Chautauqua Lake Central Schools, will still be available.

“We don’t know if the school will allow us to have the auction,” he said. “We don’t know what is going to happen.”

Caflisch said he is hopeful by July there will be more direction from state officials about if foreclosures will be allowed again or if the moratorium will be extended.

Gina Paradis, land bank executive director, said if there is no foreclosure auction, it will negatively impact the land bank’s Rehab for Sales Program because there will be very little property inventory to try and sell to potential buyers. The program is one of the main ways the land bank generates its own revenue by receiving foreclosed properties from the county and selling the houses to people who renovate for themselves or to sell to others.

Paradis said the land bank’s current inventory includes one house in Jamestown and two in Dunkirk. She said if there is no tax foreclosure auction this year, the land bank might have to take the year off from its Rehab for Sales Program. She added that because of the additional funding the land bank received from the state Attorney General’s Office, the land bank will be trying to start three new programs this year that they could focus on instead of the Rehab for Sales Program.

The land bank has been awarded $500,000 from the latest round of funding provided by the state Attorney General’s Office, Paradis said. She said the land bank will try to start new programs with the funding; however, two of the three are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first program will be a blight task force and tool lending pilot program that will start in Jamestown. She said volunteers will go into specific neighborhoods in the city to clean up vacant properties. She said the volunteer crews will also do exterior improvements and lawn work at the vacant properties. She added that neighbors of the vacant properties will be engaged to volunteer with the cleanup and exterior improvements. Also, the program would allow for homeowners in the neighborhood to borrow tools to make their own home improvements.

“It’s a great project to show some impact in neighborhoods and engage people in our mission,” she said.

However, because of COVID-19, Paradis doesn’t know how well the program will work because it’s dependent on volunteers and it’s unknown how many people will still want to volunteer following the pandemic.

The second program, also dependent on volunteers, will be a crime prevention program through environmental design. She said vacant houses will be examined to try to make less vulnerable to crime. The program would also include adding heightened security measures like more lighting. This program would start in Jamestown, Paradis said.

“It’s a method of trying to prevent crime and work through neighborhoods with urban design to try to make places less attractive for crime,” she said.

The third program, which has already started, will be a countywide rehabilitation revolving loan program to assist homeowners.