Needed haven or unsafe eyesore?

Tents and RVs house residents in the “Mad Max”-style encampment at de Vaul’s ranch. Neighbors and authorities call it an eyesore and a threat to the health and safety of the 30 or so people it’s supposed to help.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Tina Hansen, 44, of Galveston, Texas, inside a trailer she shares with a roommate at Sunny Acres. De Vaul has been the target of numerous orders to shut down the center and clean up his property. But as soon as the authorities go away, he lets the sober-living clients back in.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

De Vaul is building 10-foot-by-12 foot windowless wooden sheds -- not to store farming tools, but to house clients of his rehabilitation program. When the county shut down a barn that was illegally converted into a three-story dormitory, de Vaul continued to house clients in it until county workers nailed the doors shut.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Recovering methamphetamine addict Alex Jara, 40, prepares bologna sandwiches for lunch at Sunny Acres. “Without him, I wouldn’t have my sobriety,” he says of de Vaul.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Wielding a sledgehammer, Victor Holland helps demolish a trailer the county of San Luis Obispo ordered removed from Sunny Acres. Code enforcement workers last year began removing more than 100 vehicles unlawfully stored on de Vaul’s land, including six big rigs, six freight trailers, two dump trucks, four boom trucks and a drilling rig.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Darcene Clayton, 55, an “old addict and alcoholic,” stands next to a structure condemned by the county. She manages residents living in the house, which has cracks in the plaster and smells faintly of urine. “I’ve found a place where my crazy works for me,” she said.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Osos Valley Road entrance to Sunny Acres. For eight years, de Vaul has battled neighbors and county code enforcement officers as he’s converted his land from cattle range to a thriving hub of mostly illegal money-making ventures. He sells scrap metal from heaps, salvages parts from rusty vehicles and hawks produce and nursery stock from a dusty stand.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)