Utahns once ventured to the red-brick chapel near 100 South and 700 East to find God.
Soon, they’ll be heading to the former Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ 12th Ward Chapel in Salt Lake City to find a way out of homelessness.
A Friday groundbreaking in the gym of the 1939 Art Moderne building at 630 E. 100 South officially commenced a construction project that will see it reused as a community center for The Other Side Village’s prep school program. The tiny-home nonprofit will also build a four-story residential building behind it to host those in the course.
“It will be for people who experienced chronic homelessness,” The Other Side Foundation CEO Tim Stay said. “It will be a place for them to move off of the streets and not just to find a place to live but learn how to live.”
The chapel and new residential building in the Central City neighborhood mark an expansion of The Other Side family of programs. The Other Side Academy sits just across 100 South, and both organizations will use the renovated chapel.
New construction will open up more beds in the village prep program, which homeless Utahns must complete if they want to move into the now-open tiny-home neighborhood on Salt Lake City’s west side.
For now, the prep school is based at a temporary location in Murray and is almost at capacity with 20 of 21 beds filled. The new building — funded in part by a $6 million state grant — will be able to host 56 people as they progress through the course. Project leaders expect the new beds to come on line late this year.
The former chapel will become a community center where residents will be able to cook, recreate, get health checkups and gather for meetings.
Since the tiny-home village received its first six residents in December, Other Side leaders say three others are close to moving in. More houses, meanwhile, have been placed at the Indiana Avenue property.
