On the next episode of Hoarders...

[BannedFromDU]

Star Member leftyladyfrommo (10,889 posts)

74 yo, diabetic and now homeless.
My friend for 40 years just got thrown out of her free and clear house by the health department. It was bad but at least she had a roof over her head.

Her house gas been like that for 15 years. This whole downward spiral started 15 years ago when her long time boyfriend died in his sleep. She just was never able to get it back together again. Her thinking is not right anymore.

She did ok until she had to call 911 for help. They took one look at the house and turned her in to the health department.

About a week and a half ago several police cars showed up and told her they were taking control of the property. She wasn't able to get any of her stuff out. They dropped her off at the hospital and left.

I found her this morning asleep in her car in her driveway. She looks like a crazy street person. She has some money but the banks aren't open until tomorrow. I gave her enough to eat.

She is gone now. I have no idea where. I have a big blanket for her and some wet wipes so she can clean up.

I just have a tiny house and no couch so there is no place for her to sleep here. Hopefully she will get a motel room tomorrow. She has a hood, big car and it is warm. She is so humiliated and embarrassed I don't think she would come in anyway. Part if her problem is that she won't let anyone help her. She has to do it her way

It is complicated because she is also completely incontinent from the diabetes. She can't afford depends so she just pees all over herself and smells awful.

So I am hoping she will show back up so I can give her some things to get her through tonite and some more money for food.

You really have to be careful to take care of yourself as you get older. You just don't realize how bad things can get even if you are relatively healthy. Being old does not protect you from ending up on the streets.

That's what happens when you're a lunatic hoarder, DUmmies.

Notice how they leave the squalor part out. No one has their house condemned unless they don't take care of it. Pictures of DUmmy houses indicate that many of them live in squalor and are hoarders, so it comes as no surprise that this DUmbass leaves that fact out.

[SVPete]

The story probably leaves out some relevant details. One would be how filthy the friend's home was. The health department doesn't remove people over peeling paint or a month-long stack of unwashed laundry. Her friend's house is probably filled to near the ceiling with trash, sinks inaccessible, a possibly toilets non-functional, and maybe a near tear-down due to mold. Another is that the home owner is given notice and time to clean up. If they do, they are not removed.

I don't mean this in an unkind way, but the DU member's friend probably should be committed or in a secured assisted living situation. The hoarder clean-up shows of some years ago went in a season or two from quixotically cleaning out the house of whoever would let them do it to being selective, doing their thing where the home owner would help with the clean-up and seemed likely to keep things clean and keep improving their home's situation. As described, this DU member's friend sounds incapable of even that fairly minimal standard - keeping things up once cleaned out. But those well-intended mental health laws of the 50s, 60s, and 70s that did address real abuse went so far that if this woman's family/friends tried, getting her committed to some sort of institution would be excruciatingly difficult.

So, how many responses did it take for some DU-moron to blame Trump or Rs in general?

[FiddyBeowulf]

It is complicated because she is also completely incontinent from the diabetes. She can't afford depends so she just pees all over herself and smells awful.

I feel sorry for the 1st responders that had to enter the house. 

[fatboy]

I feel sorry for the 1st responders that had to enter the house. 

In my duties as a volunteer firefighter/EMT I have seen a few. Not long ago we had to remove a body from a second floor room, the only way to do this was to take the patient out a window and down a ladder. There are no words to describe the conditions inside the residence. The only thing that can be said is it didn't get that way in a week or month, it took years. Family and/or neighbors had to know about this.

I see no way the place can be rehabilitated, the cost in my opinion would outweigh the value of the property. I'm not a disaster/responder houncho by any means but this particular incident really made an impression on me. It literally took two nights before I could lay in bed without thinking about it.

[USA4ME]

leftyladyfrommo

I just have a tiny house and no couch so there is no place for her to sleep here.

Ever heard of renting a cot?

The primitives try and talk a good game about care and concern. But when the rubber meets the road, they fail every time.

.

[Old n Grumpy]

Ever heard of renting a cot?

The primitives try and talk a good game about care and concern. But when the rubber meets the road, they fail every time.

.

That's because she pisses herself and smells bad. She is not that good of a good samaritan!

[SVPete]

For that matter, "leftyladyfrommo" isn't springing for the cost of an occasion box of Depends for her friend.

[DLR Pyro]

how many cats were found roaming around in the house...?

[landofconfusion80]

We had a situation like this next door to one of our current rentals. These people drank like fish and smoked like chimneys. Cold checks written like they were going out of style. The house was consumes by cockroaches and bedbugs. I've seen condemned houses in better shape. There was water in the basement 2 feet deep and the back wall of the house was destroyed by a leaking upstairs bathroom. They were months behind on their rent.  When social services was contacted, I was told "well, not everyone has the same high standards as you "  the county only noticed when the girls didn't go to school. The newspaper said everyone was just surprised when that happened.

[fatboy]

That's because she pisses herself and smells bad. She is not that good of a good samaritan!

It also detracts from the "this country sucks" meme.

Response to leftyladyfrommo (Original post)

Sun Apr 8, 2018, 08:48 PM

Star Member More_Cowbell (759 posts)

16. I'd call a local TV news station
 
Especially one that does stories like this. I bet there are volunteers who would help clean things up.

If nothing else, she should have the value of the land (it's not a mobile home park, is it?)

Perfect! That way everyone in the county will know that this lady lives in a self-created SH*t hole!

It will cost more than the land is worth to tear the house down, in another post the OP said in good repair the place might be worth 80K.

Police, EMS and who know who else have seen inside the place. The Fire Chief  and probably the administrator of the local EMS provider can and probably will inform the zoning board and/or health department that their crews will not enter the residence in the condition it is in. There are several "dwellings" in our fire district that for various reasons we will not enter in the event of a fire. We will of course attempt to extinguish any fires from the exterior.

It is just not about letting an individual live the way they want even if they own the property. Everyone has rights. I do not have a sworn duty to place my life in unnecessary danger to put out a fire in a home that is floor to roof full of trash. I have been on one such call but we couldn't in that case do an interior fire attack due to the advanced nature of the fire on arrival. It took us several hours to find the victim as the patient was buried under literally a half a ton of garbage.

[SVPete]

Star Member More_Cowbell (759 posts)

16. I'd call a local TV news station
 
Especially one that does stories like this. I bet there are volunteers who would help clean things up.

If nothing else, she should have the value of the land (it's not a mobile home park, is it?)

I would not be surprised if there is a church or church-related org in the community that would gladly help IF they are reasonably believe that would solve a problem (rather than set up a repeat of the same or worse problem). This friend sounds like at best a clean-up would just restart the process of the house being trashed.

Then, too, c_d_l probably shares DU-folks' antipathy toward theologically conservative Christians. Many churches and church-related orgs that would help in that way are theologically conservative, so c_d_l would likely eschew enlisting such help.

[fatboy]

I would not be surprised if there is a church or church-related org in the community that would gladly help IF they are reasonably believe that would solve a problem (rather than set up a repeat of the same or worse problem). This friend sounds like at best a clean-up would just restart the process of the house being trashed.

Then, too, c_d_l probably shares DU-folks' antipathy toward theologically conservative Christians. Many churches and church-related orgs that would help in that way are theologically conservative, so c_d_l would likely eschew enlisting such help.

On a more personal note, I had a family member that was a hoarder but for much less of a time and the home was basically sound and the individuals personal hygiene was acceptable. While I had help from other family members it fell to me to be the lead clean-up detail. To protect the privacy of this family member we did our absolute best to do the clean-up in as a discrete manor as possible. This is one of the reason why I find this thread so interesting. Contact the media???? Right.

I was of course working full time and had other family obligations but still I dedicated at least 1 full day every weekend and several after work hours at least twice a week. It took me 5 months to get everything picked up and another 6 weeks to fix everything (interior) that was broken or needed repairs. Trash pick-up was twice/week and for about 5 months every trash night I put 20 or more bags of trash out to the curb and then filled my pick up truck with more to put out to the curb with my trash. At the very end of the clean-up when all that was left was broken furniture and non-organic stuff I rented a dumpster. I also made three trips to the recycling center with a full size van filled completely with unread magazines. It took over two hours to unload the van each time! The whole experience was a complete nightmare.

So given my experiences I doubt that there would be any volunteer group that would step in and clean the place up. The OP said the friend started to decline 15 years ago so that probably means leaky roof, broken windows, plumbing issues, deficient structural issues, vermin infestation, in short a dangerous environment. There are professional outfits that will do the cleaning but they are not free by any means. And then you still have a structure that is at least 15 years past due with routine maintenance.

So I have this mental picture of the situation and it's just not taking the trash out, washing a load of clothes and restocking the fridge. If the floors in the bathroom and kitchen are not rotted through I'm sure they are at least on the way. Broken pipes/mold, broken electrical fixtures, carpets ruined, bedding ruined, holes in the roof, heaters/hot water gone, just on and on. It's a tear down.

[SVPete]

When I posted above about charitable orgs willing to do large scale clean-up I actually had in mind such an organization here in San Jose. A couple of their projects for this year are clean-ups of houses that will otherwise be condemned (or whatever the term is) by the health department. Another project they took on several years ago was hauling out junk and trash from a largish homeless encampment. I don't recall how many dumpsters they filled, but it was a lot. Needless to say, this group has several thousand volunteers over a large number of projects. It started in just one church, but now several local churches participate. The people leading many projects are contractors or have other related expertise.

[fatboy]

When I posted above about charitable orgs willing to do large scale clean-up I actually had in mind such an organization here in San Jose. A couple of their projects for this year are clean-ups of houses that will otherwise be condemned (or whatever the term is) by the health department. Another project they took on several years ago was hauling out junk and trash from a largish homeless encampment. I don't recall how many dumpsters they filled, but it was a lot. Needless to say, this group has several thousand volunteers over a large number of projects. It started in just one church, but now several local churches participate. The people leading many projects are contractors or have other related expertise.

That's a good work, I didn't mean to imply that such a group wasn't possible only probably not too common.

In my family situation I estimate the amount of refuse we disposed of to be 22 tons, give or take, and this was accumulated in a span of 2-3 years.

I mentioned an incident from the recient past up thread. The living space we were dispatched to was actually an apartment in a four apartment structure. So there were others living withing feet of the mess and under the same roof. This is an old structure as in 100+ years old so I don't know A). how the others living under the same roof didn't know what was going on, and B). given that it was a rental unit how the owner will be able to get a CO for future tennants. I'm betting that the owner will be on the hook for clean-up and repairs. I have good reasons to think all of this but i'm not 100% sure.

[Karin]

I feel sorry for the 1st responders that had to enter the house. 

My husband had to do that once!  "Special work detail" came over the pager.  So awful, he wouldn't tell me most of it.  Dead cat in the toilet he did tell me, and I said, "say no more."