COMFORTABLE SURROUNDINGS—Cynthia Jenkins, 45, stands in the living room of her new apartment on Ashland Avenue. The Simi native said getting accepted into a recently renovated complex operated by Many Mansions is the Christmas gift she most wanted. IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers The holiday classic “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” at long last rings true for Cynthia Jenkins. After six years without a home of her own, including several bouts of homelessness, she’s finally coming home to a place that is hers.

For Jenkins, her one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment is the best gift she could have received. It comes courtesy of Many Mansions, a nonprofit based in Thousand Oaks that provides safe housing with onsite services and case management for limited-income residents.

Many Mansions has eight properties in T.O. and two in Simi: Casa de Paz and the recently renovated La Rahada. Jenkins, 45, moved into La Rahada Dec. 11. She’s the first occupant of the eight-unit Ashland Avenue complex, which offers affordable housing for extremely low-income, homeless individuals with disabilities.

For the Simi native, getting the keys to her own place is nothing short of a Christmas miracle.

“I don’t have a Christmas tree or anything, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t have any presents. This is the biggest and best gift I’ve ever gotten,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks. “God has blessed me.”

Jenkins’ journey to simply getting a stable roof over her head has been fraught with obstacles.

In fact, she’s had a lot of challenges in her life—she became a single mom at 17, fought drug addiction, and suffered from bipolar disorder and depression, undiagnosed until three years ago.

Things hadn’t always been bad. In her late 20s, Jenkins moved to Idaho, where she stayed for about 12 years. She worked as a paramedic and a nursing assistant and owned a home and a car.

But when her grandparents in California became ill, she moved to their home in Van Nuys to care of them. After her grandfather died in 2003, Jenkins’ father sold the house, leaving her with nowhere to go.

At 40, she was homeless.

Jenkins ended up on the streets of Sepulveda Boulevard for 1½ years and fell back into an old drug habit, getting high on crack cocaine.

“A lot of people who have mental health issues start using drugs because they don’t understand the way they feel,” she said. “I always felt broken but I didn’t know how to fix it.”

Eventually, Jenkins ran into trouble with the law. While she was in jail, her younger brother developed Lou Gehrig’s disease. Before he died in August 2006, she promised him she’d get clean and make a better life for herself.

After completing an 18-month substance abuse program and a stint in a sober living house in Simi, Jenkins got a job as an in-home nurse. She cared for her client for five months before he was forced to go into the hospital; she lost her job and her shelter all at once.

This time she was homeless for about a month and lived in her car. Then, after having been on the Many Mansions waiting list for a year, she learned about La Rahada.

Jenkins also started dating her future husband, Ed Dover, who convinced her to move into his mother’s house in Simi in October 2008. The couple married and lived in the house for about a year, but Jenkins wasn’t happy. She said she felt like her life was in “neutral.”

So she moved out and briefly separated from her husband. For the third time, Jenkins was homeless. Fortunately, her pastor let her sleep in her car in the church parking lot.

She relied on the Samaritan Center for food and clothing and for making phone calls and picking up mail. People at the center also helped her get to doctors’ appointments after her car caught fire and helped her be patient while she waited to hear if she would be accepted into La Rahada.

“There’s no way in the world I could ever pay them back for what they’ve done for me,” she said.

Though her parents and siblings live nearby, she didn’t ask for help.

“My family’s seen me go through all these things. I needed to do this on my own,” she said. “I needed to show my family I really want to change my life.”

Though she’s now housed and back together with Dover, Jenkins is not yet out of the woods.

She still relies on the Samaritan Center for help, and because she doesn’t have a job, she has very little money.

The unemployment money she receives and her husband’s Supplemental Security Income Disability help pay the $254 monthly rent at La Rahada, and Jenkins collects cans to bring in more cash.

“People don’t realize how hard it is after you’re homeless to get back to a normal life,” she said.

Knowing she has a place to sleep makes dealing with the bumps in the road easier, she said. A new home has given her hope and life is full of possibilities.

Jenkins’ grandma nicknamed her “Sunshine,” and a sun tattoo on her back includes a verse from Ephesians: “Let your light shine.”

Though her light dimmed for a while, it’s shining brightly again.

“She’s smiling more,” Dover said.

Besides the apartment, Jenkins said, all she wanted for Christmas was to spend time with her 27-yearold son, Robert, whom she hasn’t seen for two months since he moved to Bakersfield. On Monday, Johnson called his mother to say he’d be coming for Christmas.

“He’s going to come spend the night with me Christmas Eve and he’ll be here for me Christmas morning,” she said, holding back the tears. “Something better happens every single day.”