The Chautauqua County Land Bank Corporation has approved a program to help neighbors revitalize their neighborhoods.

On Wednesday, the land bank board approved accepting enrolling in the Neighbors for Neighborhoods program. The new pilot program, which was announced by Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman last year, will provide state land banks with $4 million in subsidies for everyday New Yorkers to take over individual, abandoned properties in their neighborhood – at little or no cost – and rehabilitate them into affordable rental housing. Created with affordable housing and community development nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners, the program requires the new housing units to remain affordable for at least 20 years. Funding for the program will come from the Attorney General’s 2014 and 2015 settlements with Citigroup and Bank of America over the banks’ conduct leading up to the 2008 housing crash.

Gina Paradis, county land bank executive director, said the grant for the county is for $450,000 and will be on a project-by-project basis. She said they can acquire $25,000 in seed funding to hire a part-time worker to handle the assessment of properties needed for the program.

Paradis said she believes there is enough funding for the two-year program to rehabilitate between four to six properties. She has already identified three properties — two in Jamestown and one in Dunkirk — for the program. She added it is another option for the land bank to assist them in their mission of rehabilitating houses and neighborhoods in the county.

Candidates for the program cannot own more than two properties, Paradis said. They also have to live within 15 miles of the property. There is also a 20-year commitment for the program, with the landlord being required to produce an annual report on the property for the land bank. Once the property is renovated, the landlord needs to offer the property to tenants at 80 percent of the affordable mortgage index.

“The program is to hopefully cultivate local responsible landlords,” Paradis said.