Salt Lake City’s council took the unprecedented move to vote in favor of a total village of homeless shelters unlike any other city in the country has seen. With gardens, stores, and even a donut shop, all run by the villagers, it could be the future of homeless villages.
The organization behind the effort is The Other Side Village, which is now in the process of submitting building permits to start development. It hopes to start housing people in the summer of 2023.
The village will provide permanent housing to people who are chronically unsheltered, which means they’ve spent a cumulative year or more on the streets within the last three years. The Other Side Village is specifically targeting those who struggle with mental illness or drug addiction, since they’re the ones who have the hardest time finding and maintaining housing.
The community will initially feature 60 fully-equipped cottage-style homes, split into smaller neighborhoods of 30 homes. It will have a bodega, and plans to start a donut shop and succulent plant arrangement business. These stores will provide employment opportunities for the villagers, so they can become financially self-sufficient while connecting with the surrounding community.
Initially, the village faced significant opposition. The space allotted for the homes is in District Two on the west side of Salt Lake City.
The Other Side has recruited unhoused people, for whom it then helped find transitional housing, to help develop the village — because they know better what unhoused people need.
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