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Urban Institute insights and analysis inform national reporting
A woman and her four young children unload grocery bags around a kitchen island.
Greg Acs, vice president for the Tax and Income Supports Division at the Urban Institute, spoke with Virginia Public Media about the risks of addressing affordability in a zero-sum context that focuses on who bears the short-term costs of a policy instead of its potential for growth.
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  • Four multicolored tents sit on a cobbled sidewalk along a street.
    Samantha Batko discusses Denver’s All In Mile High homelessness initiative
    Samantha Batko, a homelessness policy expert at the Urban Institute, spoke with Denver 7 News about her and her colleagues’ evaluation of Denver, Colorado’s All In Mile High initiative, which aims to end unsheltered homelessness by the end of 2026.
  • A young man with dark hair and a beard focuses on a computer screen in a communal working space.
    Andrew Rumbach discusses increase in private-sector disaster support
    Following the Trump administration's funding and staffing reductions at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, former employees are increasingly securing jobs in the private sector as “disaster consultants,” or contractors hired by states and cities to help with disaster recovery.
  • A man with light hair and a beard sits at a table in a brightly lit room in front of a laptop, scrutinizing one of a few sheets of paper and typing into his phone.
    Sarah Rosen Wartell shares policy pathways to address the cost-of-living crisis
    In an op-ed for Governing, Sarah Rosen Wartell, president of the Urban Institute, laid out three policy pathways leaders can explore to address Americans’ cost-of-living concerns.
  • Smoke billows and a wildfire blazes on a hilltop adjacent to a neighborhood in an arid, hilly region.
    Sara McTarnaghan discusses changes to disaster mitigation programs
    Among recent federal spending cuts were those made to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster mitigation programs.
  • A toddler in a fuzzy blue sweater and red sneakers sits, holding and inspecting an orange, next to a couple bunches of bananas, a pomegranate, and a couple more oranges in a grocery cart pushed by a woman in a blue puffer jacket through an aisle of a grocery store lined on one side with crates of oranges.
    Elaine Waxman discusses who will be most affected by SNAP changes
    President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will cut spending and support for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which could cause millions of American families to lose eligibility and face food insecurity.
  • An aerial shot of a severely flooded neighborhood, where water has reached the roofs of several homes and the leafy tops of trees. Water has completely submerged several smaller structures, including a fenced-in backyard with patio furniture.
    Andrew Rumbach discusses postflood decisionmaking in Texas
    Following the devastating flooding in Texas, Andrew Rumbach, a climate and communities expert at the Urban Institute, points to land-use and zoning laws that enable Texans to live in high-risk areas, often in vulnerable structures, like RVs and manufactured homes.