Sunny Acres founder Dan DeVaul, who faced tumultuous years before San Luis Obispo County took control over the Los Osos Valley Road sober-living facility, has died, according to community members and officials.
“He was a mentor and a father figure and showed tough love. We will always remember him and forever be grateful for his kindness and big heart, even though at times he had a strange delivery,” Hope’s Village SLO Director Becky Jorgenson told New Times via text. “Dan DeVaul has left the room but will always remain in our memories.”
He was 82. Sunny Acres Program Manager David Dieter told New Times he was informed that DeVaul passed away on March 6.
DeVaul’s attorney, Matt Janowicz, previously told New Times he was living in a care facility in Virginia.
Sunny Acres’ future remains cloudy as new potential owners eye the fraught property for community care.
DeVaul tested the limits of his harm reduction model over his program’s 24-year history. Site residents—mainly people in and out of the justice system, often battling substance addiction—were put to work on the land in exchange for a place to stay and skills that kept them busy. Along with program fees, the residents brought in revenue for Sunny Acres through pumpkin, firewood, and Christmas tree sales.
But participants also experienced overcrowding, unpermitted septic and power systems, and reported mistreatment at the hands of DeVaul. Following a $100,000 payment to a court-appointed receiver in 2013, not complying with a county-imposed injunction, and a property inspection in 2021, DeVaul also faced a labor lawsuit from some residents.
In previous reporting, Janowicz told New Times DeVaul’s family trust owns the Sunny Acres property, with son James DeVaul holding power of attorney. Janowicz didn’t respond to New Times’ requests for comment.
Since 2023, Los Angeles-based California Receivership Group has overseen cleaning up the property, which was inundated with approximately 150,000 cubic yards of unpermitted grading and debris.
‘The most maddening part about HCD’s bureaucratic delays is that one arm of the state is undermining what another arm is trying to do.’
—Mark Adams, California Receivership Group founder
A year later, a court order confirmed the property’s sale to nonprofit Restorative Partners for $2.9 million. Sale proceeds would cover the labor lawsuit settlement of $550,000 and outstanding county and receiver fees.
In 2025, SLO County and Restorative Partners jointly applied for a $7 million Homekey+ grant managed by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). Restorative Partners would use the funds to purchase Sunny Acres and create a “health campus.” Restorative Partners founder Theresa Harpin didn’t respond to New Times’ request for comment.
Receiver Mark Adams told New Times the purchase price dropped to $2.5 million, but sealing the deal with the state has become frustrating.
“HCD is making it impossible for us to get this grant,” he said. “It’s not a lack of money, they’re just making her [Harpin] jump through a bunch of hoops that we don’t think are necessary.”
According to Adams, one of the HCD’s concerns is that the court-approved sale to Restorative Partners violates a rule that “site control cannot be contingent on any other party.” He added that the HCD also takes issue with remediating the property’s health and safety violations as a condition to close escrow on Sunny Acres.
Restorative Partners also received an operating grant worth $4.4 million from the California Board of State and Community Corrections. The nonprofit can’t unlock that money because the HCD grant is delayed, according to Adams.
“It’s really the worst bureaucratic delays I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The most maddening part about HCD’s bureaucratic delays is that one arm of the state is undermining what another arm is trying to do.”
This isn’t Adams’ first brush with the HCD. His California Receivership Group took control of a failing mobile home park in Fresno after the HCD oversaw regulating it.
“If I show a list of mobile home parks that have permits to operate and are slums, you’d be shocked. They just don’t do any regulation,” Adams said. “The one that we were involved with, [the HCD] thought that by withdrawing the certificate to operate it, that they had done their job. All that did is make it even more unregulated.”
Adams didn’t name the mobile home park. According to Fresno Bee reporting, the Fresno County Superior Court appointed the California Receivership Group to bring the neglected Trails End Mobile Home Park up to code after it was ravaged by two deadly fires in 2021. The site was under HCD supervision until after the fires when the city took over code enforcement responsibility at all mobile home parks within its limits.
Adams added that his group cleaned the property and addressed health and safety violations at the mobile home park before selling it to a third party with the court’s approval.
Based on discussions with Restorative Partners, the California Receivership Group expected the nonprofit would receive the HCD grant within six months. Adams thought that the process would be smooth.
“I thought maybe the grant writing part of HCD is competent and responsive,” he said. “They’re talking to Sister Theresa at Restorative Partners. … I don’t think anybody can be unresponsive to her.”
The HCD’s media office told New Times that the state agency reviews applications in the order they’re received by geographical region.
“[It] also prioritizes applications with the highest percentage of units dedicated to veterans,” the office said. “HCD has been in close communication with the applicants for the Healing and Restoration Campus to ensure all threshold requirements of the Homekey+ program are met.”
More than a year after the SLO County Board of Supervisors authorized submitting the grant application, Adams’ company is paying the price of a sluggish process.
The California Receivership Group borrowed a $1.7 million bank loan against the Sunny Acres property to fix code violations. Adams said the loan is outstanding for two years, compelling the group to pay $16,000 a month because of the long grant process.
“It’s injuring the rights of other stakeholders to this property,” he said. “If you own a piece of property and you’re selling it, your obligation to pay your bank interest stops when you sell the property because they buyer’s loan pays off your loan.” ∆
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in April 9-16, 2026.