Brenda Mendoza is an Angeleno. Born and raised in the Koreatown neighborhood of central Los Angeles, she returned there as a young adult to begin raising her own family. Thirteen years ago, at age 28, she took a job as a uniform attendant at the JW Marriott L.A. Live hotel, about 10 minutes from home.
It was Mendoza’s plan to stay. But after nearly a decade of rapidly rising housing costs in her old neighborhood, the mother of two faced an unhappy truth: She and her family could no longer afford to live in the city.
