Our Recommendation
We strongly recommend The Other Side Village as a bold, evidence-based response to chronic homelessness that combines permanent housing, a structured therapeutic community, and clear, measurable life changes for residents. Their early results—100% sobriety, 100% employment or vocational engagement, 100% housing stability at one year, 75% health stabilization—put them among the most promising community‑based models in this space.
The Other Side Village meets the requirements for 5 of our 7 key criteria:
✔ Understands the Social Issue
✔ Has Intermediate Outcome Goals
✔ Has Ultimate Outcome Goals
✔ Measures these Intermediate & Ultimate Outcomes
☐ Measures Intermediate Counterfactuals
☐ Measures Ultimate Counterfactuals
✔ Evidence of Continual Learning & Adaptation
The Social Problem
The Other Side Village is tackling chronic homelessness driven by addiction, trauma, mental illness, and long‑term disconnection from work and community. Traditional responses in Salt Lake City and elsewhere often cycle people through shelters, jail, and emergency rooms without delivering stability, recovery, or belonging. The result is premature death, high public costs, neighborhood disorder, and deep suffering for people who have been on the streets the longest.
The Solution
The Other Side Village operates a peer‑led, democratic, therapeutic community that integrates housing, recovery, work, and self-governance in the following ways:
- Provides high‑quality, permanent tiny‑home housing in a purpose‑built neighborhood, coupled with a preparatory stabilization program to prepare residents for independent living.
- Embeds residents in a peer‑run culture of accountability, service, and sobriety, where people support and challenge each other to change deeply ingrained behaviors.
- Offers a preliminary Village Prep School, life‑skills, and intensive support for mental health, trauma, and substance use.
- Connects residents to employment and vocational training inside and outside the Village so that work, income, and contribution become central to daily life.
The core bet is that stable housing plus a disciplined, supportive community will produce durable recovery and self‑sufficiency for people who have not succeeded in less intensive models.
Key Outputs
- 538% income growth. Residents’ annual incomes increase more than five‑fold after one year in the program.
- All residents enter a structured stabilization and Village Prep track focused on accountability, sobriety, and life skills. 80% of those residents continue progressing through the program and to the Village.
- 60 completed housing units in Phase 1.
- Residents participate in daily work, service, and community responsibilities that keep the neighborhood clean, safe, and self‑governing.
Key Intermediate Outcomes
- 100% housing stability at one year.
- 4.9/5 participant satisfaction. Residents report very high levels of happiness, safety, and well‑being in surveys.
- 75% health stabilization. On average, residents show a 75% improvement in physical and mental‑health indicators after one year.
- 100% sobriety and recovery. All residents are maintaining sobriety while in the Village model, a critical precursor to health and housing stability.
- The Village connects residents to jobs and training placements so that 100% of residents are employed or in vocational programs during participation.
- The cottages provide private access to hygiene and sanitation.
Key Ultimate Outcomes
- 100% sobriety among Village residents directly addresses overdose risk while in the Village.
- The combination of 100% sobriety, 75% average improvement in physical and mental health, and 4.9/5 happiness-safety-wellbeing scores is direct evidence of improved behavioral health for current residents which greatly reduces behavioral-health crises.
- Villagers report 4.9 out of 5 on an assessment of happiness, safety, and wellbeing, alongside 100% sobriety, 100% employed or in training, 75% health improvement, and large income gains. Together these show improved quality of life and dignity for chronically homeless adults.
- On its own, the 4.9 out of a 5 happiness-safety-wellbeing score is a credible proxy for resident wellbeing.
Continual Learning & Adaptation
- The Other Side Village is part of a shared outcomes/learning infrastructure called the Know-by-Name Phase 2 effort.
- The November 2025 Know-by-Name report frames outcome tracking around “intermediate outcomes” and “long‑term outcome: client achieves thriving in all needs‑areas” and notes that partners are helping refine exit criteria and performance measures over time.
Written by
