FRESNO, Calif. – For six months, Ashley Morales-Guerrero chased a dream in San Francisco, hoping the Bay Area would open the door to a stable and well-paying job.
Instead, she found herself splitting rent with six people, rotating through four different rooms, and paying $500 a month — a big change compared to 15 years ago — for a sliver of space and a lot of uncertainty.
The reality of surviving in one of California’s most expensive cities quickly overshadowed the dreams she had. Motivated by affordability and a desire for stability, she returned to the Central Valley, got married, and tried to find a good place in the area for the two of them, eventually settling in Fresno…