URGENT: Help Walnut Lane Families Avoid Homelessness!

Residents at the Walnut Lane mobile home park were notified on April 15th that they would need to leave the property by June 30th, when current insurance coverage would lapse. There are currently 26 dwellings on the property whose resident families will become homeless at this point if they are not able to find new housing. The intent of this fundraiser is for other community members with means and for visitors who rely on our service economy to contribute what they can to do our best to help current residents of Walnut Lane (including dozens of children) avoid homelessness.

This is a significant and sudden community emergency and deserves to be treated as such by residents and visitors alike. After years of believing their housing was at least mostly secure, this is a SHOCKING and sudden development that will displace over 30 families, including children, all at once and turn them out into Moab's hostile housing market. Please contribute what you can, with whatever funds raised to be distributed evenly among current residents to help with this sudden relocation. (we will seek assistance for how best to distribute donations from the Moab Valley Multicultural Center, and donate any declined funds to MVMC for their ongoing housing assistance efforts). Although the biggest obstacle to finding new housing in Moab is availability of rentals, hopefully even a little financial boost will help people get back on their feet and help support them in some way as they find new housing.

Walnut Lane was bought by the City of Moab in 2018 to prevent private purchase of the mobile home park and conversion of the property into a new hotel or overnight rental, luxury development, or unaffordable housing. The City's plans to redevelop the property into new, expanded affordable housing while working to not displace current residents has faced obstacle after obstacle (will link articles in an update). Still in the process of soliciting redevelopment plans, the City has managed the property as landlord since 2018. It is our understanding that the current insurer has declined to continue to insure the mobile home park, and the City has been unable to find alternate insurance. Current coverage ends on June 30.