Hoarders

Al used to take his three-year-old son dumpster diving, but Child Protective Services recently removed the child from his home. Al’s hoarding has become such an eye-sore that he’s also facing $2,500 a day in fines by the county. Julie’s hoarding has reached such great heights that no one realized a homeless woman was living among the mounds of stuff in her basement. Her husband harbors years of resentment that explode into heated arguments on a daily basis. Now Julie must address her hoarding or her husband will leave her.

Lloyd’s home is so filled that he’s been forced to live in one of the many trailers on his property. He’s now facing $150,000 in fines from the county if he doesn’t clean up his 2.5 acre hoard. If Carol doesn’t clean up, her husband, Kelvin, will divorce her. Kelvin has already moved out of his bug and vermin infested home only to return temporarily for the sake of his teenage daughter. If the piles of garbage and paper, and the infestations aren’t cleaned up soon, Kelvin will leave his wife for good.

Arline’s hoard has reached such immense proportions that her six-foot-three husband Richard has been sleeping in his car each night in the oppressive heat of a Hawaii summer. He is trying to recover from heart and prostate surgery in the car because it’s a better option for him than the inside of his home. Carolyn’s family is about to press charges against her for theft if she doesn’t come clean with her hoard and return stolen items to the appropriate owners. Carolyn’s “finders, keepers” behavior has reached such extremes that her grown children have locked her out of their homes.

On August 6th, the Police, the Fire Department, C.P.S. and Code Enforcement all descended upon Jim’s house and told his family it was uninhabitable. Because of decades of hoarding, he is estranged from his siblings and his children. If he does not clean up now, Jim and his wife will be homeless and the grandchildren that he has custody of will become wards of the state. A towering hoard that included hundreds of dolls forced Susan and Bill out of their home and into a hotel. Now they have depleted all their funds, including their retirement account, and have moved back in, forcing a critically ill Bill to sleep on the basement floor. Their daughter has threatened to call Adult Protective Services if the hoard doesn’t get cleaned up soon.

Andrew’s home is an eyesore in a neighborhood of million dollar homes. The exterior and interior are completely hoarded, there’s no running water, and Andrew has allowed a homeless man to create a makeshift shelter in his front yard. Now Andrew’s brother has called Adult Protective Services. He must clean up or they will remove him and all his belongings from the home without his consent. 14-year-old Shania has three rooms filled with broken toys and old clothes that she refuses to get rid of–behavior she learned from her parents Belinda and Kevin. All three are hoarders. But now mom Belinda, depressed about the situation, has threatened to leave if they don’t ALL address their hoarding and get help.

19-year-old Andrew’s mother is a hoarder, and after living in the hoard his entire life, he has learned no other way to live. Stuck in a hoarded house, with no job, no motivation and no direction, Andrew says he needs to get his hoarding under control now in order to have a chance at a normal life. Lydia’s son Michael was critically injured in a car accident and is about to be discharged from the hospital. If she doesn’t clean her property to make room for him in her hoarded house, he will be transferred to a nursing home.

Mary has blown through over $200,000 of an inheritance buying items for the consignment shop she owns. But many of the items never make it from her hoarded home into her cluttered store. Her family says she will go broke by January unless she immediately gets help with her shop and her house. Mary Ann’s hoard is so out of control that her husband of 42 years will divorce her unless she cleans up. Their constant fighting over the hoard has taken this once loving couple and turned their lives into a battleground.

Hanna has hoarded herself and her 200 chickens out of her house and is now living with the chickens in a windowless, unheated trailer. As winter sets in, she and her chickens face freezing to death if their original home is not cleaned out so they can all move back in. In addition to the chickens, Hanna has an assortment of farm animals, some of which are in horrible shape and need immediate attention. When Levana and Todd rented out their newly purchased dream home to make ends meet, they had no idea that their tenants, Kathy and Gary, would hoard the home and destroy it by letting 30 rabbits run loose inside the house. Unbelievably, the homeowners are willing to give the hoarders a second chance if they clean up their act.

A collection of 2500 free-roaming rats have hoarded Glen out of his home and into a shed on his property. Originally bred as pets, the rat collection spun out of control upon the death of his wife. Now Glen needs help removing the animals so he can return home, but he has insisted that they be saved and adopted out. Lisa has hoarded her father’s house both inside and out. More than 30 cats roam freely through the clutter and he is threatening to evict her and her pets. Lisa will not be allowed back in until she cleans the house, and gets rid of her dozens of animals.