My name is Moe Egan. I’m part of the team building The Other Side Village — a beautiful, sober and self-reliant community for people experiencing chronic homelessness. I spent years on the streets of San Francisco’s Tenderloin, trapped in addiction and crime, unable to imagine a way out even after completing six different 30-, 60- and 90-day programs.
What finally helped me wasn’t jail alone. It was the opportunity — while facing a lengthy prison sentence — to go instead to a place that demanded more from me. In exchange for that sentence, I entered a program that taught me to become drug-free, crime-free, self-sufficient and employable. That chance saved my life.
When someone has been homeless for many years, like I was, their problem is no longer just getting housing — it’s learning how to live again. When someone walks into The Other Side Village and asks for help, we don’t hand them a bed or a pamphlet. We walk with them, fully and consistently. Through detox. Through relapse. Through the long, slow work of rebuilding trust and skills. Healing doesn’t happen in fragments. It happens through complete, uninterrupted journeys.
Unfortunately, our current system often breaks those journeys into disconnected parts. One organization handles detox, another housing, another job placement. Each handoff risks dropping someone who is already on shaky ground. Fragmentation disrupts momentum and breaks trust — often right when someone is beginning to believe in themselves again.
The real tragedy isn’t that people struggle. It’s when we stop believing they can overcome it. But in Utah, we’re proving that belief, accountability and compassion together can change everything.
At The Other Side Village, we don’t warehouse people. We restore them. We don’t lower expectations to be kind. We raise them, because that’s where dignity and healing begin.
For a decade, our sister organization, The Other Side Academy, has given men and women with long criminal records, deep addictions and nowhere else to go a real second chance. Not a handout. Not a shelter bed. A rigorous, loving and demanding community where accountability and support go hand in hand. We live together. We work hard. We tell each other the truth. Through that, we remember who we are.
At The Other Side Village, we extend that model to a neighborhood designed for those who have been chronically homeless and often struggle with mental health challenges. It’s not a government program or a charity. It’s a community. Everyone is known. Everyone contributes. Everyone is expected to work, stay sober and take ownership of their lives — and to hold others accountable to do the same.
What makes it different are trained coaches who have been homeless themselves. They live onsite and provide 24/7 mentoring. Residents don’t just hear about accountability — they see it modeled every day. That level of consistent presence is rare in any support system. But it’s why this one works.
In too many systems, people disappear behind case numbers and forms. But when someone truly sees you, believes in you and expects something of you, that’s when growth starts. Accountability stops feeling like punishment and becomes empowerment.
The Other Side Village shows that structure and love aren’t opposites. They’re partners. Dignity doesn’t come from having no rules. It comes from belonging to a community where your choices matter and your future is yours to build.
This isn’t just our philosophy. It’s Utah’s. The state’s unified homelessness strategy — human-centered, root-cause focused and expectation-driven — mirrors what we practice every day. Utahns care deeply. We want to help. But we also want that help to lead somewhere: to sobriety, safety and self-sufficiency. We owe people real results.
We must stop measuring success by the number of services delivered and start measuring it by how many lives are permanently changed — how many people become housed, self-reliant, drug-free and crime-free. Progress isn’t about counting meals or vouchers. It’s about lives transformed. Every success story chips away at the myth that people can’t change. I am proof that they can.
Utah believes in second chances, in hard work, in community and in lifting each other up. Compassion isn’t enabling misery. It’s influencing people toward the hard work of change.