Lawmakers seek to create a task force on hoarding

HARTFORD -- It's a quiet compulsion, as items ranging from mundane household goods to boxes and boxes of books -- even garbage -- pile up and fill homes.

But hoarding can become a threat to public safety, and now a group of state lawmakers -- prompted by a death last year in Cheshire and other cases in Westport, Greenwich, Milford and Newington -- have filed a bill that would create a task force to study hoarding. They hope to identify potential solutions to the psychiatric disorder that affects 2 percent to 5 percent of the population.

It was one of the first bills submitted to Senate and House clerks in advance of the 21-week session of the General Assembly that kicked off Wednesday.

Sen. Paul R. Doyle, D-Wethersfield, vice chairman of the law-writing Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday he believes there is a lot of support for the proposal because hoarders live all over the state, in virtually every town and city.

"As a private-sector lawyer, I deal with this personally all the time," said Doyle, noting that in his district, Newington officials have been meeting regularly in attempt to develop public policy. "It's a statewide problem, and the response should be a statewide effort. It's a significant issue. It's a mental illness."

He envisions having a 10-to-15 member committee with a variety of expertise, from mental health professionals, to police and fire officials, and public health experts.

Monica Wheeler, a registered nurse who is community health director for the Westport-Weston Health District, said Tuesday that for the last two years, a local group that includes social service officials has joined first responders in a Safe Homes Task Force.

"We have been trying to reach out for resources including counseling services," Wheeler said. "Really, the biggest issue is how to address interventions. It creates a real danger when a person has too much stuff in the house. It's a danger to neighbors and particularly first responders in an emergency."

Wheeler said a statewide task force seems a good way to move the process forward.

"The big questions are how we correct and intervene and are people willing to accept the intervention," Wheeler said. "One of the things that woke me up was, talking with firefighters, how serious hoarding can be."

The behavior can start at a relatively young age. Doyle said he knew of a case of a man in his mid-40s cramming his house with items he gathered.

People in their 80s and 90s might be exhibiting long-standing defenses to scarcity developed when they were young, during the Great Depression.

"As people get older, they might not see as well and might not realize how it's affecting their home," Wheeler said.

In September, Bridgeport officials said hoarding contributed to a fire that seriously injured a couple and their 2-year-old daughter.

In June, a 66-year-old Cheshire woman died when her junk-filled first floor collapsed.

Last summer, Milford health officials found a cluttered house on Ocean Avenue that housed more than two dozen cats.

In October 2012, a longtime hoarding situation was exposed during an arson fire on Havemeyer Lane in Old Greenwich in which authorities found a 42-year-old man dead from a self-inflicted gunshot and his mother badly burned.

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