Hoarding In the News Media
Professional Organizer Finds Niche Bringing Order To Hoarders
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January 22, 2015
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Long Beach, CA—Quintana, 54, left her job in the corporate world and started working as a professional organizer in 1999. . . "People would call me thinking they were just disorganized, but they were hoarders." She said. Her goal is to sift, separate, donate, and rearrange spaces when it becomes too difficult for an individual or family member to do so themselves. Many clients call her for assistance but she said others that use
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her services may be the children or care takers of an elderly person who needs help.
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‘Extreme hoarding’ made battling Franklin blaze more difficult, fire officials say
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Elodie Reed, June 23, 2016
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An investigation is under way in Franklin after a fire began in an unoccupied ranch home Wednesday morning.
Franklin Fire Department arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the East High Street residence. Capt. Jason Jenks had prior knowledge that the occupant wasn’t there, and firefighters forced their way in and found flames in the entryway to the house. . . . fire crews had trouble making their way through the building due to “extreme hoarding.” “Hoarding is a major problem nationwide,” said Chief Kevin LaChapelle, “and poses a greater danger to firefighters who are already entering zero visibility conditions.” A total of 18 firefighters were on the scene, and the Franklin Police Department also provided assistance. The fire was under control within 30 minutes, and the house—a single family rental home owned by Robert Hofmann—sustained “extensive” heat and smoke damage. No one was injured in the blaze. This particular fire was believed to have started in the home’s entryway, though the cause is unknown. A joint investigation is being conducted by the Franklin Fire Department and the Office of the New Hampshire Fire Marshal. |
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John Counts, November 4, 2014
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Woman accused of hoarding 88 cats |
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Ann Arbor, Michigan - Officials say McLeod and her elderly father lived in a rented ranch home with 88 sick and malnourished cats.
Many of the previous adjournments in the case were due to competency evaluations being conducted on McLeod. She was eventually found competent to stand trial, records show. Read more ... |
Woman, 71, burned in kitchen fire amid hoarding conditions |
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Alyssa Duranty, Oct 22, 2014 (updated Oct 23, 2014)
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Firefighters had to navigate through crowded clutter Wednesday morning to extinguish an accidental kitchen fire caused by the 71-year-old resident. The Orange County Fire Authority responded to a house fire at a bottom unit inside a six-unit building shortly before 10:30 a.m. in the 200 block of Avenida Majorca.
“Firefighters don’t expect to be hit with a wall of stuff; it really hampers with the OCFA’s efforts to put out a fire or to save a life,” said Darren Johnson, an OCFA fire inspector who works on the Orange County Hoarding Task Force. “She’s extremely lucky, as well as the community, that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.” Read more ...
“Firefighters don’t expect to be hit with a wall of stuff; it really hampers with the OCFA’s efforts to put out a fire or to save a life,” said Darren Johnson, an OCFA fire inspector who works on the Orange County Hoarding Task Force. “She’s extremely lucky, as well as the community, that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.” Read more ...
Orange County Task Force on Hoarding
For more information visit their website or call 657-23-HOME-4.
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The Orange County Task Force on Hoarding is affiliated with the Mental Health Association of Orange County. It is a volunteer advisory group that meets monthly to review residential hoarding situations that affect the health and safety of individuals.
The Task Force does not provide direct services for hoarding behavior but comprises representatives of agencies and programs that are often able to help. Service providers who encounter hoarding situations are encouraged to bring challenging cases to the monthly Task Force meeting for confidential review with the goal of identifying resources and implementing strategies that may bring about a positive outcome for all involved. |
Ben Heather, Oct. 11, 2014
Stuart Schwartz is a self-diagnosed obsessive compulsive collector, but his wife Phyllis has another name for him—he's a hoarder.
New Zealand – Stuart Schwartz admits he probably has a disease but is having too much fun to seek treatment. Schwartz is a "self-diagnosed obsessive compulsive collector"; his wife Phyllis calls him a hoarder. "I could pay a psychiatrist $200 an hour and he would tell me, "But I'd rather spend that money on kiwiana."
Hoarding, the excessive gathering of objects and unwillingness to part with it, was classified as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association for the first time last year . . . Schwartz said he believed his obsession with collecting hasn't reached that point yet, although he felt he was probably getting worse. "I guess the house is getting a little more claustrophobic." Read more ... |
Stuart Schwartz says he often has to clear the dining room table of kiwiana when his wife Phyllis wants to have people over. One day he hopes to turn it all into a ‘‘Schwartzonian’’ museum of kiwiana.
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Owner surrenders 33 cats to local shelter
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Alex Shabad, Oct 10, 2014
Ottawa Co. shelter rescues 33 cats in hoarding case
It is being called a case of animal hoarding: dozens of cats are rescued from an Ottawa County home. "It was good intentions that got a little out of control," says Brizius. "They started taking in strays to take care of them, some of them in the winter through the cold weather; and some of them ended up pregnant." Read more ...
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Douglas Marino, Oct 6, 2014 One dead in Orange house fire with 'hoarding-like' conditions
A person has died after a blaze swept through a house in Orange on Monday morning. After the fire was extinguished, a body was pulled from the home. Although the cause of the fire has not been determined, the single-family house had hoarding-like conditions. Read more ...
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Orange County Hoarder Dies in House Fire
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Ruth Bell Thomas, who shows signs of being a hoarder, says her yard on Lake City Way is her way of speaking out against "North American Apparteid." Photo: Scott Eklund/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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Task force tries to save those who save too much
To Ruth Bell Thomas, the jumble in her front yard is protest art ... But look closer at this structure, and the classic signs of hoarding behavior are evident ... To deal with the city's toughest hoarding cases, a unique, multiagency task force has been created. Read more ...
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The cases task force members are proudest of are those in which they have had success getting hoarders to have their homes cleaned up voluntarily. Seattle Community Police Officer Cheryl Brush visited newly widowed West Seattle retiree Ellen Allbrough in a slow effort to win her trust. ... When Allbrough finally did show Brush her home, it was a disaster—the kitchen floor was piled with empty food containers, dirty dishes and plastic bags, the living room an impassable jumble of lamps, clothes, furniture and trash, her bed barely distinguishable from the pile of discarded clothes around it.
An unassuming woman who had been beaten throughout her 32-year marriage by her husband, Allbrough was overwhelmed by the responsibility of handling her own finances and caring for her home alone. ... But before long, trash began piling up again. This time Brush convinced Allbrough that the home had to be cleared out from top to bottom. In August of 2001, a team of volunteers from the Police Department and Conservation Corps filled two 40-yard Dumpsters with her debris. ... On a visit to her home last week, more than a year since the dig-out, food boxes and dirty dishes had again buried her sink and her stove, and trash had accumulated around her bed. ... "I know it's a mess," she said, hugging her dog, Radar. "I am trying to stay focused on the things that are important." Brush said police will keep checking on Allbrough until she dies. "I won't let her fall into a crack," she said. Read more ... |
Ellen Allbrough sits in her bedroom in her West Seattle home. At one time her house was impassable with debris, and the home was cleared out about a year ago. But it still is a daily struggle for her to keep things clean. Photo: Scott Eklund/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
When Allbrough finally did show Brush her home, it was a disaster—the kitchen floor was piled with empty food containers, dirty dishes and plastic bags ...
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After making sure the building was safe to enter, officials cut a hole in the side of the house and began removing debris with a backhoe. Authorities found Mitchell's body on Saturday afternoon.
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Hoarder dies after 1st floor falls into basement
A 66-year-old woman described by police as an apparent hoarder was found dead under a pile of debris after the first floor of her Connecticut home collapsed into the basement under the weight of all the clutter. Read more ... |
June 11, 2014, Los Angeles Times, Orange County
Former teacher dies in OC house clogged with debris
A 72-year-old woman who was found dead on her porch in Santa Ana — a kitten in a carrier on her lap and 40-plus stray cats roaming on the property behind her — was one of the worst cases of hoarding that county firefighters had ever seen. Read more . . . |
Trash and vehicles fill the front yard of a house on Rosewood Street in Santa Ana.
Emergency crews worked three hours to remove the dead woman's body.
(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters in white hazmat suits emerging from a Beaches home Monday afternoon, carrying a bin full of items destined for a nearby dumpster.
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Sammy Hudes – National Post May 12, 2014 Extreme amount of garbage cleared from Beaches hoarding house with three inches of cat feces on the floor
Toronto Fire officials spent the day clearing “extreme” levels of garbage and cat feces from the premises, By mid-afternoon, there were piles of old clothing, newspapers, cardboard, wood, boxes, blankets and other discarded objects flooding the front yard of the semi-detached home on Beech Ave. |
What is Hoarding Disorder?
People with hoarding disorder excessively save items that others may view as worthless and have persistent difficulty parting with possessions, leading to clutter that disrupts their ability to use their living or work spaces. Read more . . . |
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Hoarders have another reason to get help: Being a hoarder could hinder the ability to get or keep homeowners insurance.
The potential pitfalls in the homes of hoarders -- people who can't stop acquiring items and have a hard time getting rid of their belongings -- include fire and injury. |
A 50-year-old businesswoman from southern California recently walked into her 83-year-old father's apartment and nearly passed out from what greeted her. "There were stacks and stacks of papers, magazines, books—literally from the floor to the ceiling," she said. Read more . . .
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