Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- The Other Side Village in Poplar Grove opens this week, offering new housing for those experiencing chronic homelessness.
- Residents graduate from a recovery program, which focuses on sobriety and community reintegration.
- The village could eventually house over 400 people after future construction phases.
SALT LAKE CITY — Jennifer Davis thought about finally having a "safe harbor" each time she rang a large bell outside a few tiny cottage homes neatly placed across a new village in Poplar Grove.
Every ring, four in total, symbolized her arrival and commitment to her future neighbors in her new community, ending with a prayer for light and hope moving forward before she moves in later this week.
"It means that I have safety, acceptance and a safe new start to begin again," she said, describing the significance of the moment.
Davis is one of the six to nine residents of The Other Side Village, a small tiny home community for people experiencing chronic homelessness. All of the new residents graduated from an extensive recovery program to get here. Dozens of more will join them after they complete the program, said Preston Cochrane, CEO of the village, an offshoot of The Other Side Academy.
Ideally, the village will become a launching point for people looking to re-enter the world after regaining sobriety, but it's also a permanent housing option for those people as they restart their lives, he adds. If everything comes to fruition, the village could house over 400 people, potentially chipping away at the growing homelessness issue in Utah that rose to nearly 3,900 people this year, according to federal data.
"This is a dream come true," said Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall during an event Monday to celebrate the new village opening and future growth coming to the project area. "And we're just getting started."
Building a village
The Other Side Village was proposed years ago, but it faced several hurdles, including finding land and then getting that land rezoned. Fundraising was also needed to pay for the homes, which can cost about $80,000 to construct and another $10,000 to fully furnish. Project officials settled on a 40-acre parcel of land near 1850 W. Indiana Ave., which had served as a city landfill from the 1920s to 1960s before it became mostly vacant.
The nonprofit also received money for the first phase of construction through private donations, as well as city and state funding. However, even after gathering the money and gaining the right approvals, the project hit even longer snags after its groundbreaking in March 2023. The opening was massively delayed as crews worked on environmental remediation of the land and water.
"When you think about all of that, we were pushed back a little bit on our timeline," Cochrane said.
About 200 people showed up Monday to celebrate the end of the long wait in a ceremony filled with music, prayer and confetti. It was a grand opening, ribbon-cutting and groundbreaking ceremony wrapped into one, as project leaders celebrated parts of the project ending and other parts beginning.
In all, about 32 homes have already been completed — a little more than half to be completed in the current phase of construction, which has already been funded. Up to 430 tiny homes could be constructed on the land through two additional phases, but there could be more people living in the village if the city ever allows for a mixed-use apartment complex at the site — something that village officials say they're open to.
Monday's ceremony was held in one of nine planned neighborhood pavilions, shared spaces for laundry and community gatherings. Construction is about the begin on a new community and medical center, as well.
"This is about belonging, and this is creating a new kind of belonging in our capital city and the first of its kind in the state," Mendenhall said. "The kind whose ripple effect is going to reach beyond the property here. ... People are watching what is happening here."
A second chance
With how her life unraveled, Davis said she wasn't sure she'd ever get a second chance to regain anything similar to the life she once had. She had a family and a career before she says she "threw it away" through addiction and trauma, becoming homeless along the way.
She had spent about eight months living at the Geraldine E. King Women's Resource Center when she learned about The Other Side Academy earlier this year.
After joining, Davis spent months with others where they learned life skills and new routines that can help them on the "other side" of life. Cochane explained that all people in the program must maintain sobriety while they relearn how to live independently and in a community before they graduate.
People are also given jobs through the nonprofit's thrift boutique, moving company, doughnut shop and other ventures that help the organization fund its services.
Davis smiles as she describes her role at The Other Side Donuts, located near the village. While she regained her sobriety and relearned life skills, she also rose through the ranks of the store leadership which she says restored her confidence.
"It has meant the world to me," she said, adding that sharing a community with others who understand her struggle is a "relief" to her.
Cochrane insists the academy's focus remains on completing a "whole person change," focusing on human behavior changes first before moving on to housing. The village maintains most of these rules, including no drugs or alcohol. However, he isn't sure there would be success stories without "deeply affordable" housing like the village aims to offer, either.
The average person moving in, Cochrane says, has experienced homelessness for nine years. And without housing, he believes it would be impossible for them to return to a normal life. He said he hopes the village can catapult people back into the lives they once lived, giving space for more people to complete the same journey as they get back on their feet.
"This is just one more step in the ladder," he said.
