THE HIVE
STATEWATCH
TINY HOMES
Salt Lake City’s novel approach to curbing the city’s issues with homelessness BY AUSTIN DOTY
How will the project work?
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While the project is philanthropic and charitable in nature, Grenny emphasizes that they aren’t just giving tiny homes away. “Our belief is that the focus of The Other Side Village needs to be not on homes, but on culture,” he says. “It needs to be on creating a community that helps people look at themselves honestly, supports someone changing their life and holds them accountable to changing their life.” Part of making residents accountable is by charging low rent and giving them a role in the community, such as working at TOSA’s doughnut shop or the organization’s moving company. Residents will also be required to follow community rules that include no drug use and keeping a clean home. To make sure these individuals are ready to live in the Village and become a healthy part of the community, they will first be initiated through something Grenny calls the “Welcome Neighborhood.” It will help individuals transition from a homeless lifestyle to a community-compatible lifestyle. “You learn how to keep your
ARCHITECTURAL RENDERINGS BY DENTON HOUSE COURTESY THE OTHER SIDE VILLAGE
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O U C A N ’ T C R E AT E a community with just tiny homes,” says Joseph Grenny, founder of The Other Side Academy (TOSA). “You can’t create the variety of resources, opportunities and rich growth experiences that human beings need by sticking them on an island somewhere.” For Grenny, creating a community means creating the right culture, and that is what he and his organization hope to do with their newest project, The Other Side Village. TOSA has successfully been helping individuals with criminal records and issues with substance abuse turn their lives around since 2015. With The Other Side Village, they want to help chronically homeless individuals (those who have been continuously homeless for more than a year). The Village will eventually provide 430 tiny homes to over 600 individuals facing chronic homelessness. It will be built on a 37-acre lot located at 1850 W. Indiana Ave. in Salt Lake City. But to get the Village started, TOSA is focusing on the Village’s pilot project, which they hope to have ready this summer. It will consist of 60 tiny homes on an 8-acre portion of the 37-acre lot. The parcel is being leased to the organization by the city for $1 a year. It will cost $13.8 million to get the pilot project off the ground, with funding coming from TOSA itself, as well as a $5 million grant from the city. However, TOSA hopes the Village will be self-sustaining in a few short years after being fully built. The idea for the Village originated at City Hall as they were looking for ways to curb homelessness in the city, which saw a 7% increase from 2020 to 2022. “I was seeing that these tiny home villages were having a lot of success with [homeless] populations that we were not having success with here in Utah,” says Salt Lake City Mayor, Erin Mendenhall. Preexisting tiny home villages, like the Community First! Village in Austin, Texas, inspired Mendenhall to campaign for a similar project in Salt Lake City. She announced her plans for the Village in January of 2021. Within two years, the project had approval from the City Council, a property to build on and patronage from TOSA.
