Guest Post: Why the housing crisis is everyone's problem: Jeff Lefkovich

The following blog post was written by guest writer Jeff Lefkovich, the Executive Director of Real Estate and Housing Development at Catholic Charities New Hampshire. Catholic Charities New Hampshire is consistently involved with affordable housing development and assistance. In October 2024, they broke ground on a project bringing more than 90 workforce housing units to Peterborough, with another 80 affordable units approved in Rochester in March of this year.

In this piece, Jeff Lefkovich reflects on his vast experience in affordable housing development and how Catholic Charities is approaching New Hampshire's crisis in housing supply. He also dives into the implications of the housing shortage on other sectors such as healthcare and the economy. Providing a policy and strategy briefing on New Hampshire's housing shortage, Jeff explores why the housing crisis is everyone's problem — and how we can fix it.

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Virtual Rendering of Vose Farm Residences, Catholic Charities' affordable housing project in Peterborough to be completed by January 2026. Source: Catholic Charities

Housing is more than shelter—it is a human right, a moral obligation, and foundational to local and State economic prosperity, population health, and social equity. Stable, affordable housing is a cornerstone of the physical and social determinants of health. It has direct and measurable impacts on business performance, government revenues, healthcare cost control, and overall community well-being. Housing functions as a critical infrastructure for public and private sector success, influencing every major system.

Impact on Health Care Costs & Improving Public Health

According to the National Institutes of Health, population health is deeply shaped by the quality and stability of one’s living conditions. High housing costs and substandard environments contribute to chronic stress, poor nutrition, skipped preventive care, and financial instability. Conversely, secure housing leads to fewer emergency room visits, reduced hospitalizations, and lower rates of homelessness. People with reliable homes are more likely to follow medical guidance and engage in proactive healthcare. As a key social determinant of health, stable housing improves education, financial security, and healthy aging—helping children thrive and older adults remain independent longer.

Well-designed, mixed-income communities benefit everyone, not just those facing financial hardship. When essential personnel—teachers, healthcare workers, first responders, and service workers—can reside in the areas they serve, it strengthens public safety, civic engagement, and local economies. Affordable housing does not decrease property values or harm school systems. Shorter commutes mean less traffic and emissions, while supporting local businesses and schools when people can live near where they work. Reducing housing insecurity alleviates pressure on emergency services and public systems, allowing resources to be reallocated toward long-term improvements in community life. In this way, affordable housing serves as a resilient, community-wide asset—not merely a charitable act.

Housing is central to Catholic Charities New Hampshire’s mission—promoting dignity, compassion, and resilience. When people have homes they can afford, they are better able to stay healthy, improve mental health, grow professionally, and engage with their communities. Supportive homes enable wraparound services, reduce social strain, and help seniors and families thrive.

Impact on State and Local Tax Revenues

New Hampshire’s unique tax structure, which relies heavily on business and property taxes along with various consumption-based taxes, makes the connection between housing and tax revenue even more direct. With no broad-based sales or income tax, economic mobility and higher disposable incomes from securely housed households are vital to maintaining the state’s fiscal health.

Stable housing enables individuals to pursue careers, grow income and retirement savings, and reduce debt. For municipalities, especially in New Hampshire where there is no general sales or income tax, the increased economic participation among residents of stable housing supports key State tax revenues and strengthens local workforce availability.

Impact on Employers and Workforce Sustainability

Without direct action to expand affordable housing, the healthcare system will remain locked in a costly cycle of temporary labor and service disruptions.

Workforce instability in many sectors—especially healthcare, education, manufacturing, and service industries—is tied directly to a shortage of affordable housing. Jobs go unfilled not due to lack of demand— but because workers cannot afford to live nearby. High housing costs and long commutes discourage job applicants and contribute to turnover and absenteeism. Stable, affordable housing is therefore not a perk but a prerequisite for workforce sustainability. Investment in workforce housing creates competitive advantages in talent attraction and economic development.

One sector hit especially hard by the housing crisis is healthcare. According to the New Hampshire Hospital Association, hospitals across the state spent more than $300 million on contract labor—a 133% increase from previous years—due in large part to the inability to recruit and retain staff who can afford to live nearby. This has led to unsustainable staffing costs and workforce instability across all levels of care. Long-term care providers, including Catholic Charities, have seen agency staffing costs escalate from under $3 million before the pandemic to over $10 million. Facilities like Hillsborough County Nursing Home have been forced to close beds due to persistent staffing shortages. Without direct action to expand affordable housing, the healthcare system will remain locked in a costly cycle of temporary labor and service disruptions.

Across industries, employers are reconsidering their presence in New Hampshire and exploring relocation to housing-friendly states with stronger labor pools. Addressing the housing crisis is essential to protecting the state’s workforce competitiveness.

Furthermore, New Hampshire’s declining business tax revenues—a major component of state funding— reflects the compounding effects of the housing crisis. When employers struggle to recruit and retain staff due to housing affordability and shortages, their ability to grow and generate taxable revenue is impaired. By enabling employers to invest directly in nearby housing projects—with legally structured priority access to units for their low- and middle-income workers—we can create the conditions for business expansion, job creation, and long-term increases in state tax revenue. This represents a fiscally pragmatic solution to a structural economic challenge: strengthening housing supply to restore the engine of business growth and state fiscal health.

A Stronger Housing New Hampshire

The issue of housing creates a hub and spoke model, where a change in the access to and affordability of housing will have impacts on many different sectors. Source: Jeff Lefkovich

Investing in housing is not only a moral and social imperative but a fiscally responsible and economically strategic decision. Housing is core infrastructure—fueling economic stability, public health, and workforce sustainability. The return on investment is broad-based prosperity: healthier people, stronger communities, and a more resilient economy that benefits taxpayers, employers, and public systems alike. Supporting affordable housing development is not charity—it is smart, long-term policy.

To accelerate solutions, state policy—ideally in collaboration with federal partners—should establish meaningful incentives for employers to directly invest in affordable and workforce housing development. For example, businesses that contribute capital to a nearby housing project could receive priority access to a percentage of the newly created units, particularly within developments supported by Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) financing.

It is important to distinguish today’s employer-assisted housing efforts from the exploitative models of the early industrial era, where workers were bound to employer-owned “company towns” that often controlled their housing, wages, and freedom. Modern employer involvement in housing development—especially when structured around affordability, voluntary participation, and fair housing compliance—is a fundamentally different model rooted in empowerment, choice, and mutual benefit. Providing priority access to a percentage of units for contributing employers does not equate to control over tenants, but rather reflects a strategic and ethical way to address acute workforce shortages while strengthening community ties. This approach is also consistent with current housing policy, where priority access is sometimes offered to veterans, individuals with disabilities, and other target populations as part of a broader strategy to meet public needs in an equitable and inclusive way.

This approach reduces reliance on diminishing federal and state subsidies, aligns employer investment with workforce needs, and helps close critical funding gaps. In return, employers benefit from access to housing units, a more stable talent pipeline, improved employee retention, and stronger ties to the communities they serve. A policy framework that encourages and rewards such partnerships would not only expand housing supply—it would also generate long-term dividends in productivity, public revenues, and statewide economic resilience.

Advancing HousingWorks for Health: A Scalable Employer-Linked Model

Catholic Charities New Hampshire has pioneered a HousingWorks for Health model that integrates affordable housing development with employer engagement, health system partnerships, and targeted support services. This approach recognizes housing as a strategic intervention—not only to improve health outcomes—but also to stabilize and strengthen the workforce across sectors. By designing developments that offer contributing employers structured, Fair Housing-compliant priority access to a share of new units, this model supports recruitment, retention, and workforce sustainability.

While the model originated through partnerships with healthcare institutions, its principles are broadly applicable across industries—from education and manufacturing to service and public safety. Employers facing chronic labor shortages can co-invest in nearby housing to directly improve workforce availability, reduce turnover, and enhance community vitality. HousingWorks for Health demonstrates how mission-aligned development can address systemic challenges through shared responsibility, unlocking long-term value for employers, employees, and the public.

The Illusion of Progress: New Housing ≠ Affordable Housing

Policymakers may believe the market is responding to demand, but in reality, the market is bypassing affordability entirely.

Despite ongoing construction activity, only a small fraction of new rental housing in New Hampshire is affordable to low- and moderate-income households that include long term commitments to rents, services, and resident protections. According to state permitting data and housing development trends, of the 11,730 new multifamily units permitted in New Hampshire from 2019–2023, only 736 (6%) were affordable LIHTC units. In 2024, New Hampshire issued 2,101 new multi-family permits. But with limited new funding for deeply affordable units, the vast majority, about 95%, are expected to follow this market-rate trend.

This underscores the structural problem: without intentional public policy, incentive alignment, and deeper investment, the private market will not deliver affordability at scale. Even as more housing units are added, housing insecurity will persist for low- and moderate-income earners unless affordability is designed into the production pipeline from the start. The state’s ambitious housing production goals mean little if the resulting units are financially out of reach for most residents.

For every 100 units built in the last five years in New Hampshire, only 6 were affordable. Source: Jeff Lefkovich

While state and local officials may see an uptick in housing construction—new developments breaking ground, projects under review, and cranes on the skyline—what they often miss is that nearly all of these projects are market-rate. In fact, only about 6% of the new rental housing constructed over the past five years in New Hampshire is affordable to low- and moderate-income households and not part of a for-profit development.

This leads to a dangerous illusion of progress: the appearance of housing activity without any meaningful relief for working families, seniors, or vulnerable populations. Policymakers may believe the market is responding to demand, but in reality, the market is bypassing affordability entirely. Without public intervention, we are building a future that excludes the very people our economy and communities rely on.

A Final Note:

The challenge ahead is not merely to build more housing—but to build the right kind of housing. If we want a New Hampshire where essential workers, families, and seniors can thrive, affordable housing must be recognized and invested in as core infrastructure—just as vital as roads, schools, and utilities. It supports our workforce, strengthens our economy, contributes to State tax revenues, and keeps our communities resilient. Affordability must be more than an afterthought. It must be the blueprint.

Source: Catholic Charities

Jeff Lefkovich is the Executive Director of Real Estate & Housing Development at Catholic Charities New Hampshire. He is reachable at jlefkovich@nh-cc.org.