How Los Angeles Room & Board is helping young adults live beyond survival mode.
Two-thirds of community college students in California are experiencing food insecurity, according to a statewide survey during the 2022–23 school year; roughly half of these students were facing homelessness. Los Angeles Room & Board (LAR&B) founder Sam Prater set out to change that, starting with a former UCLA sorority house the group overhauled in 2020 to give 15 students a place to live. Four years and three houses later, he has teamed up with interior designer Ryan White to take the nonprofit’s housing model to new heights through the redesign of Dunamis House.
The 17,000-square-foot building, located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, is outfitted with 50 single and double rooms for students between the ages of 18 and 24. That’s in addition to communal spaces for its residents, including a kitchen and dining areas, a screening room, a lounge, a recording studio, a barbershop, and an inner courtyard covered with a sprawling, large-scale flower mural by artist Sergio Robleto.
Befitting its Los Angeles locale, Prater and White wanted a space that felt cinematic. They stumbled upon this building, which White describes as “a modern, colorful version of a Nancy Meyers film.” But of course, the past isn’t always a legacy worth repeating—and this historic building has strong ties to two troubling moments in the history of the Boyle Heights neighborhood.
It was built in 1914 as the Forsythe Memorial School for Girls, where local Mexican-American girls were “Americanized” by Presbyterian missionaries. The building was then repurposed in the 1940s as a hostel for Japanese-Americans who were returning from nearby internment camps. Prater and White felt that this redesign was an appropriate way to give the building, and its surrounding community, a new chapter. “There is a deep, deep culture here, and I feel proud that we are using this space again for people who need it,” Prater says.
Of course, it needed a designer’s touch, for which White called upon the same vendors he uses on his residential projects, many of whom donated work for the space. “I wanted it to feel like you are walking into a boutique hotel where you felt transported, safe, and inspired,” White explains. This was accomplished by thoughtful elements like calming midtone-hued wallpaper, generous greenery, and low-level lighting. Each student has access to a furnished room, freshly prepared meals, haircuts, and educational workshops. The on-site café even offers employment opportunities to interested residents.
LAR&B was founded in 2020 by Prater, who credits his 14 years of working in university student housing, plus his own experience as a young adult, as the inspiration behind the organization. “Higher education isn’t a panacea and doesn’t solve every ill, but I am passionate about its power to change lives,” he says. After his mother died, his godfather took him and three of his siblings in. “I felt safe in his home, and that was something I wanted the students to have when they walked into this space.” There is a painting of Prater’s godfather by Joshua Rainer in the lobby of Dunamis House. “It serves as a reminder of what it means to love someone else’s children.”
It’s the same ethos that White found compelling when he was introduced to Prater following a chat with a friend of a friend in 2022. After meeting Prater, who walked him through all 50 rooms at Dunamis House, he knew he was on board. “I was impressed…and a little bit dizzy,” White admits. He was given six months to design and furnish the space before it opened last year, though LAR&B is still seeking funds for ongoing operations. You can visit its site to donate or learn more about Dunamis House.
