URGENT: Help Walnut Lane Families Avoid Homelessness!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: If you are a resident of Walnut Lane who would like to receive funds, please take a moment to fill out the form linked HERE

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 and hardships associated with displacement from our community.

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 equitably among current residents to help with this sudden relocation, with a priority to families that do not have other funding support. To most efficiently and transparently distribute funding, we are coordinating with representatives from local service providers who are already working with residents to help with relocation, including Moab Valley Multicultural Center, Moab Solutions, and Seekhaven. 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.