Hoarders

Beverly has been obsessively recording thousands and thousands of hours of audio and video for decades. Her home is filled with TV’s and recorders, her yard piled high with boxes of tapes and her walls hidden behind floor to ceiling stacks of video cassettes. One of Beverly’s daughters is threatening to report her to social services if she doesn’t get help. Megan is living in her hoarded, mouse-infested home with a one-week-old baby and her two older children. Family Services has made several visits, but she has so far managed to avoid letting them in the house. At risk of losing custody of all three kids, the family has moved to a motel and now must clean up their home.

Becky’s hoard fills 16 separate storage units and the monthly fees have driven her into debt. Currently living with her son and his fianc , she has also started to hoard in their house. Fed up, they have given her until the end of the month to get rid of her hoard and move out. Because of her hoarding Clare was forced by the Sheriff’s Department to undergo involuntary mental examination and then banned from her own property until it is cleaned. She is staying with a friend while her son and his girlfriend have been living in a storage shed in the backyard–with no power or water. If Clare doesn’t clean up her home, she risks losing her house and leaving her son homeless.

Stacey has two days to get rid of the 47 dogs and cats that have taken over her house. They have ripped everything to shreds and forced her 14-year-old daughter to move into her brother’s home. If she doesn’t clean up she risks losing both her daughter and her home. Roi has already been in jail twice due to his hoard. And now the fire department has kicked him out of his house because of a gas leak buried deep in piles and piles of belongings. As the team begins the clean up, they discover that the gas leak is just the first of many dangerous hazards in the home.

Lisa is an active chef, a member of various cooking groups, an expert on historical cooking gadgets–and a compulsive food hoarder. Even though she lives in an affluent DC neighborhood in a million-dollar home, her kitchen mirrors a slum. Lisa’s daughter has memories of her mother cooking with expired food, reassuring her that “bugs are an extra source of protein”. Bertha delivers newspapers for a living, stopping along the way to pick through her client’s trash looking for “treasures” to bring home. Her yard looks like a city dump, leaving her home virtually inaccessible. Now the court has issued her an ultimatum: clean up the mess in 40 days or go to jail.

Kevin is the youngest son of renowned political strategist and a silver screen star–both of whom have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He grew up in a huge mansion living a charmed life. But now Kevin has hoarded himself out of this Upper East Side Manhattan apartment and sleeps on a bench in front of the building. His apartment is so filled that the only way in is through a window on the fire escape. Kevin’s neighbors are fed up, and his brother (the executor of the family trust), is tired of coming to his rescue. He now faces eviction if he does not clean up his home. Mary has hoarded her home to capacity with things she thinks are from the Victorian age. She is so obsessed with her collections of furniture and decorations from that time period that she has let the house crumble around her. Her children no longer want to help her or let her stay in their homes. Mary must now clean her home in an effort to salvage her relationship with her family.

John is a retired corrections officer living in a house with more than 30 cats hiding in the walls and ceilings. They run wild through most of the home and all surfaces are covered with cat feces and urine. The remaining rooms are hoarded with John’s collections and his deceased mother’s belongings which he’s unable to part with. John faces multiple animal cruelty charges and fines and must clean up his house. Vivian’s hoard has literally pushed her husband Sylvester out of the house. He runs a business in Detroit but would return to California as much as possible. His visits soon evolved into hotel stays–until he just stopped making the effort. These days Sylvester will go home to his wife and family only once every 4-6 months. If Vivian wants him back she must clean up the house or risk losing him forever.

Judy hoarded herself out of her house and used cancer surgery as an excuse to stay with her friend Linda. A few weeks turned into a ten months nightmare of Judy hoarding and squatting in Linda’s home. Now Linda and her family are ready to kick Judy out–cancer or no cancer. Judy needs to clean up before she ends up homeless. Jerry used to have a lovely half million dollar property in a very desirable neighborhood. He lived there with his kids until his hoarding got so bad that the kids were forced to move in with their grandparents. Then the house went up in flames due to arson. Now, the burned out shell of his home is surrounded by a giant junkyard. It’s a huge eye-sore and a public nuisance that will be taken by the city if he doesn’t clean up.

Ronald is a fire-fighter who is legally mandated to report hoarded homes. But in this case the hoarder is his wife, Eileen, and the house is his own. Eileen has destroyed not only her 3,200 sq. ft. home, but her relationships with her husband and six sons. Now, her son Steven has threatened to turn Eileen in to the health department if the living conditions are not improved for his four younger brothers. Judy has blown through almost her entire $1 million inheritance on her hoard, and has lost $30,000 worth of checks in her hoarded house. The floor to ceiling hoard not only occupies her entire home, but also storage units and a trailer. If Judy doesn’t get her compulsion under control and find those checks, she and her husband will go broke.

Wilma’s hoard has done so much damage to her home that the city has deemed the structure uninhabitable. Regardless, she is illegally squatting there and if she doesn’t clean up, her property will be condemned. She takes no responsibility for her hoarding and the impact it has had on her three grown children. During a heated clean-up, Wilma is unable to part with belongings, but has no trouble breaking ties with her kids. Nora’s house is filled with rows and rows of containers. They line every wall of her home, creating small paths for her to get around. They’re filled with shopping finds as well as thousands of books, scrap-booking supplies, teaching materials, fabric and children’s items intended for her grandchildren. Her compulsive shopping has maxed out an equity line of credit and exhausted her fixed income. Nora must face her compulsions head-on or risk losing her home.

Mike’s house is so toxic that a virus she contracted in the home caused her kidneys to fail and almost killed her. Her doctor advised her not to return to the home until it was thoroughly cleaned. Instead of cleaning, Mike moved in with her sister Judy. Months later, Judy can no longer tolerate Mike’s hoarding and needs her to move out. If Mike doesn’t clean up she’ll have no where to go. Bonnie is a 46-year-old single mother of two teenage daughters, neither of whom can remember ever having a clean house. The home is hoarded and in need of repair, but Bonnie is terrified C.P.S. will take her kids away if she lets anyone in. The kids are tired of having to do things like wash dishes in the bathtub and there are screaming fights about the hoard. Bonnie must clean up to keep C.P.S. away and to salvage her relationship with her daughters.