A City of Vancouver-led team tackling compulsive hoarding by tenants and homeowners is dealing with more than 200 cases of what city manager Penny Ballem defined as a growing mental health challenge.
The majority of cases involve multi-family dwellings across the city and those responsible for the unsafe premises are primarily elderly men, according to the citys assistant director of inspections Carli Edwards, who made a presentation to city council Wednesday.
When we look at the ages, its over-represented by seniors, which isnt a big surprise, said Edwards, noting other research on the topic matches the demographic. I think what is a big surprise is that we have nearly a third of our clients under 55. So this means a lot of people are in mid-life and have a lot of years [to live] and we need to support them.
The number of cases is expected to rise once the city launches a campaign to publicize the hoarding problem. But Edwards cautioned the city initiative is not to have residents complain about a neighbour who is just messy.
The city defines hoarding as the extreme collection of possessions such as old newspapers, clothes, broken or old gadgets that may seem to be unusable or of limited value to others.
It leads to living spaces, yards and garages being so cluttered they are no longer safe or functional, including kitchens and bathrooms. Such clutter can present dangers for the tenant, neighbours and emergency personnel.
In the last six months, we had one where [firefighters] had to use a shovel to shovel through items to get a person to rescue them another case where they had to cut the door out in order to get in and rescue them, Edwards said.
In October 2012, a water leak in a hoarded apartment went undetected until residents from four other apartments in the building had to be evacuated because of damage.
The citys most notable case of hoarding dates back to October 2011 when fire crews were unable to rescue the occupant of a house in the 700-block of West 23rd Avenue because of blocked windows and doors.
Since that death, the city put together a team compose of a city inspector, fire inspector and two mental health workers from Vancouver Coastal Health to tackle hoarding.
Known as the Hoarding Action Response Team, or HART, the teams role is to identify hoarders, get their place cleaned up and get the resident help for mental health issues or direct them to a support group.
Eviction of the resident or having a premise demolished is not an end goal. At the same time, Edwards clarified, the team is not a cleaning service.
We do not go in and clean these places but we will be that friend or relative that many of us who are lucky to have that says, Hey, can I take out your garbage, or can we go through this box together while Im here, she said.
Vision Coun. Kerry Jang commended Edwards and the team for their cutting-edge work in addressing the hoarding problem. But Jang urged Edwards to ensure publicizing the work of the team doesnt lead to the stigmatization of residents who otherwise dont fit the definition of a hoarder.
Im concerned theyre going to start to misinterpret people who are just messy and unkempt like my basement with a person with an anxiety disorder or other sort of mental illness, said Jang, a professor of psychiatry at the University of B.C. So I think we have to do a little more public education on that point so people actually understand what the anxiety disorders are as opposed to someone who just doesnt have enough time to clean up their house.
The hoarding team considers a case resolved when the occupant of the home is safe, access to windows and doors are clear, living spaces can be used for the intended purpose and the client is linked with the appropriate health resources.
So far, more than 80 of the citys 212 cases are considered resolved.
mhowell@vancourier.com
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