Editorial: County must follow through on De Vaul

Officials have given the rancher much time to clean up his act; now it’s time for action

Dan De Vaul has been given multiple years to clean up his act, and now San Luis Obispo County has run out of patience.

This week, the Board of Supervisors clamped down and issued an ultimatum.

De Vaul must correct violations on his Los Osos Valley Road property, where he’s been operating a makeshift homeless shelter, or the county will do the work for him and send him the bill.

We believe this is the right call, and we urge the county to follow through as promised.

As we’ve said many times, we admire De Vaul’s humanitarian offer of refuge to recovering drug addicts, alcoholics and other people in need. We also recognize that there would be no need for De Vaul’s help if the county and other local agencies would step up and provide adequate detox facilities, homeless shelters and other services.

However, De Vaul has thumbed his nose at county rules and regulations for too long.

As board Chairman Jim Patterson aptly put it, “Mr. De Vaul is providing a service. But you don’t have to break the law to provide those services.”

It would be one thing if this were simply a matter of aesthetics, but this isn’t just about scrap metal and car parts littering the property.

Violations also include turning a barn into living quarters — a dangerous situation that led code enforcement to board up the building.

It may be true — as critics of the county point out —that those people who once lived in De Vaul’s barn are now camping out in creeks or under bridges.

However, that doesn’t justify the situation; it would set a dangerous precedent if code enforcement officials were to look the other way and ignore violations.

What would be next? Allow homeless people to live in garages, gardening sheds and dirt-floor basements?

We believe the county has shown restraint and an admirable willingness to give De Vaul every opportunity to comply with the law.

In addition to providing him with ample time to correct violations, county officials and others in the community have reached out with offers of assistance.

Now, it’s time for action.

County supervisors have given De Vaul a timetable; we urge them to make sure that it’s met.