At a press conference on Thursday, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall announced a partnership with The Other Side Academy to create a pilot tiny home village.
The Other Side Academy is a nonprofit rehabilitation and vocational school in Salt Lake City. Draft designs for the village show rings of tiny homes in two concentric circles with potential Airbnb rental locations, a chapel, a dog park, a greenhouse, a community garden, and a communal village center.
Joseph Grenny, Founder of The Other Side Academy said that the village would eventually have as many as 500 units— and that after initial expenditures, they’d work to make the project self-sustaining.
“The Other Side Village will be one of Utah’s gems,” Granny said. “It will ultimately provide a dignified, safe, and prosperous life for 400-500 men and women. It will be self-reliant. Our village will be the pride of all who are welcomed to it. It will be a gathering place not just for those who are currently unsheltered [but] it will be a vibrant and frequent venue for people from all walks of life.”
A land-search committee including former Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, Ivory Homes CEO Clark Ivory, The Miller Family Foundation and others has been formed to find a location for the village.
The announcement comes after the city ran a series of working groups this year to develop a tiny home plan that could work in Salt Lake City. Mayor Mendenhall said that she hoped the pilot project would be off the ground by November to complement the suite of existing homeless services in northern Utah before winter weather sets in.
