Introduction
  • Introduction
  • Federal Policy Impact
  • State and Local Impact
  • Spotlight: Real-Time Data and Actionable Solutions for the Affordability Crisis
  • Spotlight: Advancing Responsible AI Use
  • Urban’s Reach and Influence
  • Support This Work
    • A person walking in front of the US capitol and American flags as the sun sets.
    Federal Policy Impact

    In 2025, Urban elevated facts and evidence in historic debates on federal programs that help people afford health care, food, housing, and other essentials.

    Together with other policy research organizations, we helped bring widespread attention to the likely consequences of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s (OBBBA’s) safety net cuts and the bill’s distributional impacts. Our work also played an instrumental role in the rejection of proposals that would have limited access to key supports for those in need. Thanks in part to Urban’s work, benefits or services were likely preserved for

    • more than 1 million adults and children who would have lost access to Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits because of proposed regulations affecting the ACA Marketplaces;
    • more than 50,000 families who would have lost access to ACA premium tax credits under an OBBBA proposal that lacked protections for families applying for coverage after the birth of a child;
    • more than 500,000 older workers who would have been denied benefits under proposed changes to the eligibility formula for Social Security Disability Insurance; and
    • more than 170,000 people who rely on federally funded Housing First supportive housing programs that were targeted for draconian cuts.

    We also helped inform new proposals with potential to help large numbers of people. Senators drew heavily on Urban’s work in crafting two bipartisan bills that may advance in the years ahead. The Road to Housing Act, which passed the Senate, would lift regulatory barriers to the production and financing of affordable housing. The Stronger Start for Working Families Act, introduced early in 2026, would make 3.5 million lower-income families newly eligible for the child tax credit.

     

    The US capitol and traffic at sunset.
    A nurse taking a patient’s blood pressure and temperature at a doctor’s office.
    A man setting down his belongings inside an apartment.
    Workers constructing a manufactured home.
    A parent working on a laptop while caring for two children.
    People waiting in line to check out at a grocery store.
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