A Fight for the Homeless and Against Authority

[groovedaddy]

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Burly, bearded and gleefully obscene, Dan de Vaul does not look the part of the bleeding-heart homeless advocate, sporting as he does a feather-topped cowboy hat, a large collection of guns and a bushel of hoary wisecracks.

But for nearly a decade, Mr. de Vaul has been housing dozens of homeless men and women in a farmhouse and a collection of tents, trailers and sheds spread around his 72-acre ranch here on the outskirts of this city in central California.

Mr. de Vaul says he is simply doing the work his county cannot or will not do. But officials say that the housing at Mr. de Vaul’s ranch, known as Sunny Acres, is substandard, often illegal, and rife with dangerous code violations, including missing fire detectors and faulty wiring.

Now Mr. de Vaul faces possible jail time, and his activities are sharply dividing residents of San Luis Obispo and the surrounding county, even as the county’s surging homeless population — estimated to be 3,800 people — outstrips the capacity of its shelters, which have about 125 beds.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/us/12homeless.html?th&emc=th

[TransitJohn]

1. What fucking coward unrecced this post.

A :kick: and a recommend from me. Thanks for posting.

[ret5hd]

2. The ones that are in a snit because Skinner won't cowe down to them.

[dana_b]

3. interesting article

He sounds like a good guy who wants to help and doesn't want others to butt in. The issue being that if he is charging some to stay there, then there are codes that he has to live up to. If he isn't charging, then shouldn't the county mind their own business?

No good deed goes unpunished.

[groovedaddy]

4. That's what I thought also. Given the general neglect toward the poor in general and the homeless

in this case, at least this guy is trying to do something to help. I'd prefer that any human habitation be up to code BUT a cardboad box under a bridge, is that "up to code?"

I saw it posted a while back about the courts in Florida sending sex offenders to live under a local bridge, even issuing an i.d. that listed their "residence" as under the such and such bridge. How is what this guy is doing any worse than that?

[dana_b]

5. he's not, he's more humane than

the Florida courts! Holy crap - what is wrong with that picture?!

That's the crap that makes me insane. Punishing people who want to help out by citing them, fining them, sending them to jail and in the meantime the homeless are back on the street because the shed wasn't up to code.

[bobbolink]

7. That's not the point at all. The point is that we homeless people are supposed to die,

and leave this country to the good people.. those with plenty of $$$$.

[Name removed]

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