San Diego Mayor and USCM President Todd Gloria announced the tour during the organization’s Fall Leadership Meeting, citing housing, childcare, healthcare, and food prices as the primary drivers of the current crisis. The initiative serves as a direct response to a recent survey of 113 mayors, where nearly all respondents identified housing costs as the single largest contributor to financial instability. Participants will spend October analyzing regional strategies for relief, with stops scheduled in Austin for housing, Columbus for healthcare, Atlanta for food security, and Albuquerque for childcare.

The data driving this tour suggests a widespread municipal struggle; 93% of surveyed mayors report that local affordability has deteriorated over the past year. As cities face simultaneous pressure to expand social assistance programs and provide tax relief, the Conference is positioning this tour as a mechanism to identify scalable solutions. By connecting local leaders like Kirk Watson in Austin and Andre Dickens in Atlanta, the organization hopes to create a blueprint for federal intervention, highlighting the limitations of city-level budgets in managing systemic economic pressures.