Elderly hoarders may face housing problems and some expensive bills.
Hoardings creates problems for people who find it difficult to throw things away, making their homes so crowed it is difficult to clean and difficult to navigate.
Hoarding can also be a problem for the elderly and for their families as described in “The Painful Costs of Elder Hoarding.”
In this case a Florida man was living in a mobile home retirement community. The homeowner’s association threatened eviction because of everything spilling over from inside to outside of the home. The cost to his family for cleanup was $4,000.
It was then discovered that the inside of the home was in even worse state and contained many health hazards for an elderly person. Cleaning up the inside of the home by professionals came at an estimated cost of $15,000, which the family was unable to afford.
Fortunately, the man’s air conditioning unit broke and the family was able to convince him to do some cleaning in exchange for a new air conditioner.
Hoarding by the elderly is a serious problem that does not have any easy solutions.
An elder law attorney or an elder advocacy group could be helpful to families in finding solutions and resources.
Reference: Next Avenue (March 23, 2016) “The Painful Costs of Elder Hoarding.”
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