Note: This report has been updated to reflect comments from Rhiana Medina of the Moab Valley Multicultural Center.
When the Moab City Council purchased for $2 million a Walnut Lane trailer court in 2018 in order to build affordable housing, one of the primary goals was to not displace the residents that inhabited the collection of aged singlewide trailers until the first phase was completed.
For nearly six years, residents at the Walnut Lane trailer court have waited for the city to build affordable housing. On Monday, they learned they will have to vacate their homes, or move them if they own them, in the coming weeks. Photo by Doug McMurdo
After nearly six years of stagnation, those residents have been informed their leases with the city will terminate because the city’s insurer, Utah Local Governments Trust, will no longer cover the property as of June 30. Some residents own their trailers; most rent from the city.
With the exception of barking dogs, Walnut Lane was quiet Wednesday morning, April 17. Most people seemed to be at work. One resident was clearing weeds from his yard.
“They don’t have nowhere to go,” said Raethan Tyler, who moved to Moab from Shiprock, New Mexico about nine months ago. His in-laws own the trailer, but they don’t have the means to relocate. “It sucks, man.”
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