The Evergreen Hostel, a historic building in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, once provided a safe space for Japanese Americans to rebuild their lives following imprisonment in internment camps during World War II.
Now, the space is home to The Dunamis House, a group residential living facility for students and young adults facing homelessness.
It’s led by the nonprofit Los Angeles Room & Board, an organization that provides housing and critical support structures for young people transitioning into adulthood.
“We intend to continue the legacy of providing hope and opportunity,” L.A. Room & Board founder Sam Prater said in a statement.
“The Ancient Greek translation of Dunamis is ‘power’ and ‘potential’. Through the intentional work of our staff and community partners along with collaboration with the residents we’ll house, L.A. Room & Board hopes to unleash the power of our resident’s potential to create their very best lives and become more self-sufficient.”
The space is reserved for young people ages 18-24 who are enrolled and currently attending college or trade school in Los Angeles County. It was the city’s first Homekey property dedicated to serving youth, part of a much larger project to create interim and permanent housing solutions for all Angelenos facing homelessness.
The Dumanis House opened in March 2023, with single and double rooms available for 40 students, in addition to a kitchen and dining area, screening room, lounge, recording studio, barbershop, inner courtyard, and on-site cafe (where residents can also work through an employment program).
According to a statewide survey during the 2022-23 school year, an estimated two-thirds of community college students in California were experiencing food insecurity, and roughly half of these students were facing homelessness. Prater founded L.A. Room & Board to help.
The nonprofit began by remodeling a former UCLA sorority house to give 15 students a place to live. The Dunamis House is now the organization’s third house.
“Offering someone a safe place to sleep is only one part of our mission,” Prater told EdSource. “The real work is trying to transform lives, and through the services that we provide and our incredible team, that’s where the real work happens.”
Residents are allowed to live at Dunamis for up to three years. After this, they are given the option to move into one of the nonprofit’s other homes and are asked to pay subsidized rent, which Prater said helps guide the young adults into remaining housed after leaving the program.
Many of the residents in Room & Board’s programming have previously lived in group homes or juvenile halls, making the stylish and modern design of Dunamis a stark — and welcome — contrast.
“Colors and fabrics and light and airflow — all those things impact people’s experience in housing,” Prater told EdSource. “I wanted to kind of create a space that felt aspirational, inspirational, that felt like, ‘Oh wow, I’m proud to come home here.’”
With warm color palettes, ambient lighting, cozy and modern furniture, and sprawling, colorful murals, residents have a place to truly relax and feel at home.
Additionally, living in Dunamis includes access to healthy and nutritious meals (and cooking classes), one-on-one tutoring, mental health support, job training and career development, and community-building activities.
“There is no place like this. This is one of one,” Sherbert Diaz, a Dunamis resident, told EdSource. “It gave me the opportunity to understand who I am and to leave the survival mode.”
The space is also especially welcoming to LGBTQ+ students, like Diaz, who were referred to Dunamis House through the Los Angeles LGBT Center. The Center is the lead agency for the county’s coordinated entry system for youth, though referrals also come directly from area colleges and partner agencies.
Other residents, like Dream Harris, found Dunamis House after navigating homelessness their entire lives. At first, Harris thought it was “too good to be true,” shocked that the beauty of the facility — and the stability it promised — came without a price tag.
But now, given the resources to survive, Harris can finally thrive.
“This place gives me an opportunity to really sit down and think about my decisions and what I want to do in life,” Harris told EdSource.
“I was raised in the worst of the worst. I lived on the streets at one point. I was on drugs at one point,” he added. “Now I have a nice bed to sleep in every night. I have a job now. I have opportunities, so many opportunities.”
This kind of transformation stems from Prater’s own experiences, as well as his expertise in traditional university housing. After his mother died, Prater’s godfather took him and three siblings in.
“I felt safe in his home, and that was something I wanted the students to have when they walked into this space,” he told ELLE Decor.
A painting of his godfather hangs in the lobby of Dunamis.
“It serves as a reminder of what it means to love someone else’s children.”
Header image by Dušan Vuksanović/Courtesy of Ryan White Designs
