Solving the housing crisis starts with understanding it better.

Isn’t census data enough?

Census data tells us some of what we need to know about the housing crisis in Moab, but there are serious gaps. For example, it doesn’t give us great information on renters, vehicle dwellers, or seasonal workers, groups who form a core part of Moab’s population.

It also doesn’t give us good information on “non-traditional” households, such as unrelated roommates sharing rent, landlords who live with tenant roommates, or employees living together in employer-provided housing—all commonly occurrences in Moab.

Finally, census data doesn’t give us qualitative information on the experience of finding and maintaining housing—such as whether leases are oral or written, if a person has felt at risk of homelessness, or factors outside of cost that might affect a person’s ability to find or stay in their home.

So, we launched a survey of our own.

We (the Moab Area Housing Task Force—read more in our FAQ) launched an annual housing survey in June 2024 to fill in some of these data gaps. 

We’re volunteers, not data scientists, and our methodology is by no means perfect (more on that in the FAQ too), but this data can supplement existing census data to paint a clearer picture of the housing crisis for the public.

We plan to improve the survey each year, and we’ve already learned a lot from the first year.

This is an iterative process, and it’s going to keep getting better.

We will update this public dashboard annually, providing an ever-clearer picture of the evolving housing landscape in Moab and ensuring government accountability. If there’s information you think is missing here, let us know, and we’ll try to include it next year!