Vulnerability
Our housing guidance site
"Perhaps we could see the hoarded home as a form of communication – communicating traumas or difficulties which the individual hasn’t been able to make sense of by themselves, which have instead been left to pile up and take over the thinking space inside them and the living space around them" (Brien et al., 2018*)
Hoarding
Hoarding refers to the acquisition of items with an associated inability to discard things that appear to others to have little or no monetary value, to the point where it interferes with the use of living space or activities of daily living.
Hoarding is considered a form of self-neglect due to its impact on the adult and others.
Conditions that can indicate signs of hoarding can include, but are not limited to:
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extreme clutter, empty food packaging, books or papers stacked up in living spaces (clutter image rating scale can be found here)
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facilities such as bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms that are no longer fit for purpose because they are being used as storage
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exits are blocked, and it is extremely difficult to navigate around the property
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hoarding of animals and issues related to their excrement
For guidance on responding to hoarding in our Social Housing, please see Hoarding guidance
For more information and resources relating to hoarding, please see the Clouds End website.