📘 JSA2026 FY2026 Commonwealth Budget – Volume X: Housing, Land Use & Rural Recovery

Prepared by the Office of Jason S. Arnold – 2026 Gubernatorial Candidate, State of New York
This final volume presents the JSA2026 strategy to lower housing costs, eliminate development barriers, rebuild rural towns, and return land control to the communities that care for it — not the bureaucrats who hoard it.

🏘️ Housing Without Bureaucracy

More homes. Less red tape. No handouts for megadevelopers.

• Fast-track permitting for owner-occupied housing up to 8 units in all SEZ/LEZ zones
• End state incentives for luxury high-rises that displace locals or sit half-empty
• Launch the Commonwealth Housing Design Lab to provide open-source, code-compliant house plans for low-cost builds
• Use state land banks to distribute parcels for homestead, co-op, or public trust projects in rural regions

🌾 Operation Ghost Town: Recovery Phase

Turn abandoned state properties into growth zones for housing, healing, and homegrown businesses.

• Redevelop jails, schools, and mental health facilities into mixed-use housing, trade school campuses, and civic centers
• Offer $1 long-term leases to counties that repurpose unused government properties within 18 months of award
• Incentivize counties to open up vacant buildings to addiction programs, farm incubators, and youth workforce centers

🏠 Build to Stay, Not Speculate

We’re not building for Airbnbs, hedge funds, or out-of-state flippers. We’re building for New Yorkers.

• Impose tax penalties on residential parcels held vacant by corporate owners longer than 24 months
• Give local governments preemptive right-of-purchase on residential lots sold via foreclosure or lien auction
• Expand exemption eligibility for homeowners in RRC and SEZ zones who build or rehab homes for in-state renters or buyers

🌄 Rural Infrastructure First

There is no housing solution without water, power, and roads to go with it.

• Deploy $2.2B in redirected capital funds to rural road repair, well/sewer expansion, and broadband grid upgrades
• Create Rural Recovery Corps to offer 2-year contracts for tradespeople to relocate and rebuild in target counties
• Launch the NY Farmer-Builder Compact to support agri-villages with tool-sharing, land co-ops, and produce-to-market subsidies

📈 Outcomes We’re Building Toward

• 25,000 new affordable units built or approved in SEZ/LEZ zones within 2 years
• 150+ state-owned properties repurposed by local entities under Ghost Town Phase II
• $450M annual savings by eliminating subsidies for failed luxury housing programs

🔚 Final Word from Jason S. Arnold

This volume is how we come home again. New York doesn’t need another Housing Authority. We need space, tools, and the freedom to build a life — without asking Albany for permission or Wall Street for rent.

This is the end of the JSA2026 Commonwealth Budget series — but it’s only the beginning of the rebuild.

🗽 Jason S. Arnold, Candidate for Governor
📍 https://jsa2026.com
☎️ (516) 586-0660
✉️ jaysarnold@icloud.com