Supervisor Lori Parlin recently posted a new update on her official website, including two powerful letters sent to State agency heads from El Dorado County Sheriff Jeff Leikauf and Chairwoman Regina Cuellar of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians. Both express clear opposition to the proposed commercial SUD treatment centers in Rescue and highlight the lack of transparency and collaboration from the developers, HomeCA and Native Directions.
As Rescue Deer Valley has warned from the beginning, HomeCA and Native Directions have shown no genuine intent to work with county officials or local communities to deliver thoughtful services where they are truly needed. Instead, they prioritized inexpensive rural parcels over safety, sustainability, and community impact—hoping to bypass local scrutiny entirely.
Sheriff Leikauf’s statement captures the issue from a county perspective clearly:
“It is unreasonable to expect small, rural communities like ours to shoulder the burden for challenges that originate from larger metropolitan areas… Those solutions must be locally driven, fully coordinated, and respectful of the impacts to the communities in which they are placed.”
4/8/2025 Letter from Sheriff Leikauf to Michelle Baass and Jennifer Troia
Chairwoman Cuellar also called out the failure of Native Directions and the State to engage with the county’s only federally recognized Tribe prior to awarding the grant, stating it “demonstrates a lack of respect for the Tribe’s expertise and perspective.”
These letters are a firm reminder: El Dorado County and its residents were not consulted — not by the State, not by the developer (HomeCA/6Beds.org), and not by Native Directions.
We are incredibly grateful to Sheriff Leikauf and Chairwoman Cuellar for standing with our community. Please take a moment to thank them and share these letters widely to ensure others know what’s at stake.
We will continue pressing State agencies to cancel these ill-conceived projects. In the coming weeks, we’ll also reach out to Assemblymember Joe Patterson and Senator Alvarado-Gil to help reinforce our case. Stay informed by subscribing to updates at www.rescuedeervalley.com.
Rescue Deer Valley! 