Local rancher and founder of sober living facility Sunny Acres Dan De Vaul went before San Luis Obispo Superior Court on Oct. 20, in a dispute between Sunny Acres and San Luis Obispo County.
The hearings were the latest in a continuing struggle between De Vaul’s sober living facility and the county, with the county asking Judge Charles Crandall to place a receiver — a court-appointed individual who handles money or property during a lawsuit — on Sunny Acres to oversee improvements to the ranch. De Vaul argued that the cost of improvements would force De Vaul to lose the ranch.
“They’re asking the judge to place a receiver on my property,” De Vaul said. “If that happens, I might as well hand them the keys.”
The receiver would be in charge of overseeing renovations to living facilities for those at Sunny Acres, and the bill would then go to De Vaul. De Vaul said he fears that the receiver would leave him with an “impossibly huge debt.”
“They’d run up a couple million dollar bill, and then I’d be responsible for paying it or lose the ranch,” De Vaul said.
On the other hand, county supervisor Bruce Gibson said the county feels that De Vaul has not made enough of an effort to clean up the ranch, and appointing a receiver might be the only way to get the living conditions fixed.
“It’s not a matter of shutting down or not shutting down Sunny Acres,” Gibson said. “We’re supportive of the idea that he runs a sober living facility out there. That’s great, but he has some safety issues.”
Gibson represents District 2, where Sunny Acres is located, and has been trying to improve the living conditions at Sunny Acres for several years now, he said.
These conditions include living quarters in garden sheds, electrical wiring that is not up to code and contaminated wells on the property that need to be removed, Gibson said.
“Most importantly, he has converted what are meant to be agriculture buildings — barns basically — into living quarters, done it without permits and, more importantly, not to the building code,” Gibson said.
The county is not trying to shut down the sober living facility. Instead, they are trying to ensure that everyone has a safe place to live, Gibson said.
“We simply believe that people deserve safe and sanitary living conditions,” he said.
But according to De Vaul, the residents at Sunny Acres will have no place to live if the ranch shuts down. De Vaul started the sober living facility 13 years ago, when he said he “brought some people out of the crick to the ranch.”
Since Sunny Acres’ beginnings, the ranch has attracted dozens of former addicts looking to get clean and live there, such as Sunny Acre’s general service representative Jimmy Lack, who first came to Sunny Acres in 2002.
Lack said Sunny Acres took him in and helped him get clean when no other recovery facility could.
“I was having trouble,” he said. “Nobody wanted me at other recovery places. I was too much trouble.”
Lack described himself as the town drunk of Arroyo Grande, who wanted to get clean and reunite with his family, but until his arrival at Sunny Acres, was unable to make any progress.
Now, Lack counsels new alcoholics and addicts, leading both the Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous groups at Sunny Acres.
Lack said he owes his own recovery entirely to De Vaul.
“De Vaul stuck with me through thick and thin,” Lack said.
If a receiver were to be placed on the property and Sunny Acres were to shut down as a result, Lack said he fears he would lose all the progress he has made since coming to the sober living facility.
“I would fall apart,” Lack said. “I would lose my sobriety. It’s been my home for so many years.”