A hotel worker's 3-hour commute tells the story of LA's housing crisis and her strike

Striking hotel workers walk the picket line in Los Angeles, California, on July 2, 2023. (Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Images)

Brenda Mendoza was born and raised in Los Angeles' Koreatown, just a 10-minute drive from the upscale JW Marriott hotel where she's been working for 14 years.

But priced out of the downtown area she grew up in, Mendoza now lives almost 100 miles away in Apple Valley and commutes two to three hours each way to get to work.