Local hoarding task forces aim to get sufferers the help they need

Bonnie Klem has been walking into homes for more than 15 years, and the signs that something is wrong are often visible from the sidewalk: There’s an odor, or the blinds are always drawn. There are piles of rusted fenders on the lawn, or seven broken vacuum cleaners on the front steps. Sometimes, the backyard grass is barely visible through piles of stuffed plastic bags.

Inside, stacks of newspapers reach the ceiling. Toppled boxes, exploded cans of spaghetti sauce, office supplies and garbage block the hallways. The stairs are crumbling, and the floors sometimes give way to the weight of one person’s stuff.

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(Courtesy of Montgomery County Government/ ) - Hoarding is a problem that authorities consider a matter of public health and public safety. Above, a home in Montgomery County.

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These exceptionally cluttered homes fall into the category of hoarding, a problem local, regional and national authorities consider a matter of public health and public safety. It is also now recognized as a significant mental health issue, one that experts say causes its sufferers to accumulate objects to the point that they become emotionally attached to and perhaps endangered by them.

Across the Washington area, local jurisdictions have been setting up hoarding task forces to coordinate their responses and raise awareness of the issue. Simply hauling out the trash and encouraging the hoarder to start over with a clean house can be emotionally damaging and futile. Now, officials use resources across a broad spectrum to get hoarders the help and support they need.

“There is such a thin line between people saying, ‘Oh, those quirky slobs,’ and recognizing that this is a disease and that they need help,” said Klem, a member of the Montgomery County Hoarding Task Force who also supervises investigations for the county’s adult protective services. “These people are becoming victims of their things. We’re trying to get a better edge on how to help hoarders and to get people to understand the problem.”

The task forces have become more prevalent in recent years. The first known task force, in Fairfax County, was one of five in the country in 2006. This year, there are more than 85, said experts who study hoarding.

In addition to Montgomery County’s task force, which began in 2009, other localities in the Washington area modeled programs after Fairfax’s in recent years. Arlington County started a task force in 2002, and Prince William County began a task force this summer.

Experts estimate that between 2 and 5 percent of the U.S. population demonstrates some sort of hoarding behavior, meaning millions of Americans are in need of help. Awareness has been bolstered by popular television shows depicting hoarders and those trying to intervene. But some warn that those cases spotlight only people willing to allow cameras into their home and don’t focus on the vast majority, who try to hide their condition and its evidence.

Gail Steketee, dean of Boston University’s School of Social Work, is a renowned hoarding expert and co-author of “Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things.” She said the problem can be compared to “a little bit of pack rat behavior gone haywire.”