An estimated 20,000 to 50,000 hoarders live in Montgomery County, but the cash-strapped county says it has no money to deal with the problem, which can lead to neighborhood eyesores and homelessness.”This is a nuisance behavior, and we have sympathy for the client, but we can’t just write a blank check to deal with a mysterious disorder that may not be curable or treatable,” said County Councilman George Leventhal, D-At large, and chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee. “There has to be a limit for the taxpayer.”
A task force, which the council appointed in 2009 to study hoarding, reported that the problem is wide-ranging and affects everyone from young apartment dwellers to senior citizens living in stately three-bedroom houses.
Hoarders collect items like mail, newspapers and animal waste to the point that it blocks doorways or keep them from using their kitchen, causing problems that range from fire hazards to zoning violations to smells that seep through apartment walls.
“Sometimes there is no running water because they were too embarrassed to let a plumber come into their home when they had a problem,” Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Mary Anderson said.
In October 2010, the department spent $17,028 — not including staff costs — in taxpayer money to house a family and clean their home after a neighbor’s complaint about external debris revealed severe hoarding.
While that case is unusual — most cleanups cost between $600 and $800 — the agency handles between 75 and 200 cases each year.
Hoarding can get out of control, pushing the house to be condemned and the resident into the homeless system. Anderson said the county requires residents to help pay for the cleanup when possible.
Affected county agencies, many of which were represented at Thursday’s meeting, include animal control, the fire department and the Housing Opportunities Commission as well as the Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington.
“None of your budgets have the money in them to absorb what we are getting into,” said Councilman Marc Elrich, D-At large. “I’m saying that in a bad way, but this is the real world, and it worries me.”
Hoarders often go undiagnosed until they reach their 50s. Many who often have obsessive compulsive disorder, dementia, generalized anxiety or other mental health problems.
Because hoarding has not been classified as an official mental health disorder, many hoarders must fund their own treatment outside insurance or, more often, go untreated until government intervention.
