Student living in crowded Windsor home finds new place

It’s a small studio apartment out in the country. But it’s a heavenly home to Cinthia Bravo and her boyfriend.

Bravo, 21, a Santa Rosa Junior College senior who was featured in a Press Democrat article in November, had been living with 22 other people in a house in Windsor owned by her aunt and uncle. Besides the actual residential part of the house, the garage and backyard also had been divided into multiple sleeping quarters.

At that time, she found it difficult to take a shower or use kitchen facilities when she needed to because everything had to be done in shifts. It was also hard to study with all the noise that 22 people, mostly farmworkers, made coming and going all day.

Now Bravo, who was identified as “Cindy” in the November article, says “I have peace.”

“It’s quiet. I have a kitchen and I can make my meals whenever I want. It’s a safe place, quiet, and I feel like I can study,” she said.

Bravo and her boyfriend, Manuel Reyes, Jr., had been searching for an affordable place to live, and coming up empty.

How did she get so lucky? Maureen Merrill, a member of the Windsor Rotary Club, read about her plight and wanted to help.

She met with Bravo’s mentor, Zeke Guzman, to learn more about Bravo’s living conditions and the history of her journey from her native Mexico at age 16. That night Merrill said she couldn’t sleep, thinking of Bravo and her sister, Araceli, living in such a crowded house.

She put out a request to Rotary Club members and other friends who might have extra space to rent, and that’s where Bill Bolster comes in.

Bolster, a member and former president of the club, had a studio apartment unit in his large backyard attached to his renovated 1910 farmhouse that has been “relatively unused” the last few years, he said. His wife, Jean, is a semi-invalid because she suffers from Alzheimer’s, he said.

“Having someone else around is a benefit,” said Bolster, who also has a Golden retriever named Hunter. The house is located in a rural unincorporated area of Santa Rosa near Windsor.

Merrill and Bolster met with Bravo and Reyes, conducted background checks and got “rave reviews,” Bolster said. Serendipitously, it turned out that Reyes had received a scholarship from the Healdsburg Rotary Club, which put him through an automotive technician program to get a certificate and become a car mechanic.

The couple agreed to pay rent and help Bolster around his 8-acre property with its large lawn, and promptly moved everything out of the apartment, sanitized it and brought in donated and purchased furniture and made it their own. They moved in this past Sunday.

“It’s been excellent,” said Bolster, who owns the engineering firm Electro Optical Components. “They helped me clean up the yard before I threw a little party. They use our laundry room.

“They get it,” he said. “They both know what it takes to make it.”

Reyes, 26, is pleased and grateful for their new home, saying “we have everything we need, like utilities, and the space is good for us, as well. It’s very peaceful and a nice location for us.

“We are focused on becoming independent and working up to buying our own house, starting a family and just enjoying life,” Reyes added.

Bravo, who graduates from SRJC with an associate degree in business administration in May, plans to go on to Sonoma State University in the fall with the help of scholarships. She continues to work part time as a bookkeeper for a car repair business in Windsor.

Merrill visited the newly cleaned apartment on Wednesday.

“They’ve made it a sweet little home,” she said. “I’m tremendously relieved,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes.

Unfortunately, there is still another Bravo family member who is stuck in the four-bedroom house, Cinthia Bravo’s sister, Araceli.

Bravo said her uncle has told Araceli to move out because he can now charge more to rent the bedroom. He has offered her half a mobile home where a man lives who smokes, drinks and uses drugs, Bravo said.

“What can I do? I don’t feel she is safe over there,” she said.

As for herself, Bravo said that, “Being out of the house, it’s healthy for me.”

She said she wants the same for her sister.

Merrill is now trying to help Bravo’s sister find a place to live.

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com pr 707-521-5209.