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Food insecurity, housing insecurity, and homelessness have and continue to be an issue on college and university campuses. Unfortunately, they are issues that continue to encounter a social stigma associated with these issues. It’s a systemic issue that unfortunately impacts already marginalized communities.

We are excited to partner with Los Angeles Room and Board (LARNB), a non-profit organization that creates living-learning communities that provide a safe, secure, and supportive environment with one-on-one case management and access to extensive support services which will allow students to hone in on life, leadership, and social skills.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately hit students from low-income backgrounds the hardest. Job loss, eviction, domestic violence, lack of reliable internet connection to adapt to online learning, and social isolation have undermined these students’ pursuit of education, making them more vulnerable than ever before. The long-term impacts of observing an entire year of low-income students drop out of college due to inadequate relief during this precarious time is harrowing: we will lose the talents of these young people not only until the pandemic subsides, but their absence will subsist for years thereafter and into the next generation,” says Sam Prater, founder of LARNB. 

The Issue:

LARNB has identified some of the problems that plague their community:

  1. In Los Angeles County, one in five community college students are facing housing insecurity & homelessness.
  2. A lack of available affordable housing that also doesn’t prioritize struggling college students.
  3. Financial aid packages leave students with a $7,000 shortfall in covering living expenses. Many drop out of college as a result.
  4. Food and housing insecurity are strongly correlated to mental & physical health issues, including depression, eating disorders, and other mental health issues.
  5. The rising cost of living in Los Angeles continues to surpass national standards.
  6. Homelessness threatens college completion and their future job opportunities. This also creates a gap of much needed local workforce.

Sam Prater founded LA Room and Board as a place “to support students in identifying housing without respect to credit worthiness, income level, or other barriers. [Utilizing] a Transitional Housing model, [the program] fully subsidizes [a] student’s housing expenses for a period of time and progressively requires students to pay toward their housing expenses.” 

The Curriculum:

This holistic model focuses on empowering students to be successful inside and outside of the classroom. LARNB’s program provides its residents with:

  1. Tutoring and academic mentorship
  2. Financial literacy and planning
  3. Mental health and wellness services
  4. Community service
  5. Job skills and career readiness
  6. Interpersonal leadership

LA Room and Board manages their programme much like most residential education programs run a Residence Curriculum. LARB’s curriculum focuses on the learning outcomes related to four distinct and intentional domains:

  1. Building Healthy Relationships
  2. Critical Thinking and Decision Making
  3. Self-Efficacy and Independence
  4. Celebration of Diverse Perspectives

Assessment is also an essential component of the LARNB experience. LARNB uses qualitative and quantitative research to measure the success of their efforts. On top of that, their assessment plan uses retention rates, graduation rates, and transfer rates as critical student success indicators. To learn more about the curriculum at LARNB, please click on the executive summary link below.

The Business Model:

Like in many of our communities, property and construction prices make this kind of initiative almost impossible. LARNB works with institutions of higher education to utilize vacant bed spaces within campus residences to lease those bed spaces. LARNB uses the space to create a stable place to live for students experiencing food/housing insecurity and/or homelessness. They also work with housing providers with vacant properties that are adjacent to campuses or easily accessible by public transportation and conducive to community living to create more housing spaces for their students.

At eRezLife, we are excited to work with LA Room and Board as their housing software provider as they grow their organization and need to manage their processes online.  If you’d like to learn more about LA Room and Board, check out the following resources:

Welcome to the community!  We’re glad you’re here.

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