From the Streets to Self-Reliance
How Joseph Grenny’s Other Side Village Is Rewriting the Homelessness Playbook
A 2 a.m. Alarm and a Box of World-Class Doughnuts
At two o’clock each morning in downtown Salt Lake City, former rough-sleepers slip into spotless aprons, fire up industrial mixers, and begin turning out pillowy brioche rings glazed with passion-fruit icing and drizzled caramel. They call their venture The Other Side Doughnuts—and last spring, on a dare, its rookie bakers walked into Utah’s prestigious “Do-Show” doughnut competition and walked out with the coveted Crowd Favorite award.
For Joseph Grenny, co-founder of the social-enterprise community known as The Other Side Village, that blue-ribbon moment captured everything his movement is about: “The fact that we expect nothing from people shows that we see nothing in them,” he told American Dreams. “Let them compete, let them win, and their whole sense of self shifts.”
The Paradigm Problem
Grenny spent 35 years teaching Fortune 2000 companies how to shape human behavior. But the real test came when two of his own sons spiraled into addiction and incarceration. “I felt this chasm between what the science said about change and what actually worked for my kids,” he recalls. The epiphany: homelessness is not primarily an asset gap—it’s a behavior-and-community gap.
“If you’ve been on the streets for 10 or 15 years, you haven’t just lost housing; you’ve learned an entire lifestyle,” Grenny explains. “Providing an apartment and a case manager doesn’t rewrite those habits.”
So he flipped the script. Instead of scattering services across agencies, Grenny and his partners built a single, immersive neighborhood where accountability, sobriety, and meaningful work are non-negotiable social norms.
Inside the “Prep School” for a New Life
Every resident’s journey begins in The Other Side Prep School—a six-to-twelve-month boot camp run by peers who have already moved a step ahead. Entry isn’t granted by a bureaucrat; it’s voted on by the 20-odd men and women who will share the dorm, the chores, and the lunch table.
“Imagine presenting yourself to people you knew from the encampment and watching every hand in the room rise to say, ‘We want you here,’” Grenny says. “It’s respect, it’s hope—and the very next morning they expect you to live up to it.”
Slip-ups trigger a Resolution Group—a blunt, loving huddle where peers demand better. It’s tough love rooted in evidence: social norms out-muscle incentives or lectures when it comes to rapid behavior change. The result? A 100 percent sobriety record inside the program and a 79 percent graduation rate.
Enterprise as Therapy
Work isn’t an add-on; it’s the engine. Students staff doughnut counters, assemble freeze-dried snacks for Other Side Foods, and—by late 2025—will welcome paying guests to Other Side Inn, a boutique cluster of 21 tiny homes. Last year, sister program The Other Side Academy in Utah and Colorado generated $11 million in enterprise revenue, covering all operating costs without a dime of government funding.
“Customers don’t buy our doughnuts because they pity us—they buy them because they’re phenomenal,” Grenny says. “That’s self-redefinition you can taste.”
Rent from finished micro-homes will cover another 40 percent of the village’s budget; the rest comes from enterprises run entirely by residents. Within three years of full build-out—430 cottages surrounding a 600-seat performance hall, deli, gym, walking path, and clinics—the project aims to stand completely self-reliant.
Winning Over the Neighborhood
When organizers announced they would house 500 formerly homeless people on Salt Lake City’s west side, 90 percent of local residents voiced support—an unheard-of statistic in NIMBY America. Crime drops where the Academy and Village set up shop; property values rise. “The community loves us because we take care of our block,” Grenny says simply.
Scaling the “Teaching Hospital”
With thriving campuses in Salt Lake City and Denver, Grenny’s team is raising capital to finish construction, launch two more enterprises, and codify the model so other cities can copy-and-paste. The ambition: spark a national conversationthat dispels what he calls “the bigotry of low expectations” embedded in current homelessness policy.
“We’ve built a system that lets people stay stuck,” he argues. “Accountability isn’t cruelty; it’s dignity.”
How to Join the Other Side
Grenny’s ask is refreshingly capitalistic: Buy what residents are selling or help fund bricks and mortar. To learn more visit theothersidevillage.com
Joseph Grenny is an author of ten books, including four immediate New York Times bestselling books with more than seven million copies in print that are also standard texts in universities worldwide. His bestsellers include Crucial Conversations, Crucial Influence, Crucial Accountability, and Change Anything.
Joseph’s work has been used by nearly half of the Forbes Global 2000 and has helped millions of people achieve better relationships and results.
In 1990, Joseph cofounded Crucial Learning, one of the world’s most respected learning and organization development firms. Crucial Learning offers solutions to achieve healthy communication, high-performance habits, productive relationships, and influential leadership. It has a community of more than 20,000 certified trainers and facilitators worldwide. Joseph is also the cofounder and current board chair of Unitus Labs, an international nonprofit that has helped more than 50 million people increase their self-reliance. Unitus Labs affiliates have provided capital arrangement services of more than $4 billion to some of the world’s most successful socially oriented ventures.
Joseph is cofounder and board chair of The Other Side Academy (TOSA), a residential school that teaches vocational and life skills to people with histories of crime, addiction, and homelessness. In 2021 he cofounded The Other Side Village, a 430-home community for the chronically homeless based on principles of self-reliance and peer accountability. A dynamic keynote speaker and leading social scientist for business performance, Joseph’s work has been translated into twenty-eight languages and is available in thirty-six countries.
Alan is managing partner at Greenstein, Rogoff, Olsen & Co., LLP, (GROCO) and is a respected leader in his field. He is also the radio show host to American Dreams. Alan’s CPA firm resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and serves some of the most influential Venture Capitalist in the world. GROCO’s affluent CPA core competency is advising High Net Worth individual clients in tax and financial strategies. Alan is a current member of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (S.I.E.P.R.) SIEPR’s goal is to improve long-term economic policy. Alan has more than 25 years of experience in public accounting and develops innovative financial strategies for business enterprises. Alan also serves on President Kim Clark’s BYU-Idaho Advancement council. (President Clark lead the Harvard Business School programs for 30 years prior to joining BYU-idaho. As a specialist in income tax, Alan frequently lectures and writes articles about tax issues for professional organizations and community groups. He also teaches accounting as a member of the adjunct faculty at Ohlone College.