Other Side Village will break ground on housing village to help homeless

SALT LAKE CITY — The Other Side Village will break ground on the first phase a new housing village for the homeless in Salt Lake City. This comes after several months of City Council hearings and red tape. 

Joseph Grenny, co-founder of the Other Side Village, joined Inside Sources with Boyd Matheson on Tuesday to discuss Wednesday’s event.

Other Side Village breaks ground 

“Tomorrow is an absolute celebration,” Grenny said. “So after just under two years, which is really light speed for government work and for big projects, typically, we will be breaking ground to start the build of the Other Side Village.”

Grenny says eventually, the facility will house up to 600 chronic homeless people.

“In a place that doesn’t just put a roof over their head,” Grenny said. “That helps them to gain a life that most have never had before.”

Grenny credits Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall for her leadership in making this a reality.

Grenny says often times we think of homelessness as a housing problem or an issue of providing job training for people.

“If you’ve got somebody who’s lived on the streets for years,” he said. “The thing that we don’t want to admit to each other is part of the problem is them fundamentally changing the way they live, developing a set of habits and approaches to life’s problems that will help them to lead a happier life, more productive life.”

He says that it is a leadership and influence problem.

“It’s helping people to reshape their lives,” Grenny said. “And then recreating an environment which the Other Side Village will be that, that gives them the support and influence they need to sustain that.”

What will the Other Side Village look like?

Matheson asked, “What does the village really look like and feel like? What will those who come to live there experience for themselves?”

Grenny says in two years the first thing people will see are beautiful buildings. Among those buildings will be a donut shop, that is expected to be open in three months.

“This will be an experience spot,” Grenny said. “A place where people can learn a little bit about the Village, but have a delightful party and coffee and donuts.”

Grenny says people who were previously homeless, will be helping run and promote this enterprise.

The first phase of the project will consist of 60 homes that will be 250 to 400 square foot homes. People will be expected to pay rent. Within the Village, however, are employment opportunities that will help them pay rent.

“But it will be a safe, beautiful, prosperous, and ultimately self-reliant community,” Grenny said. “This will not be a ward of the state forever.”

 

Inside Sources with Boyd Matheson can be heard on weekdays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

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