Hoarding cases on the rise in Vancouver
Posted April 10, 2013 1:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A team created a year ago by the City of Vancouver to respond to hoarding concerns has seen its caseload more than double.
The group is now going public in an attempt to reach out to even more hoarders.
Since last spring, they’ve quietly gone about their business, going to the homes of hoarders and offering help.
The team started with about 80 cases, and that’s now grown to more than 200.
The City of Vancouver’s Carli Edwards points out most of those are in places like apartments.
“If hoarding happens in a multi-family dwelling, that’s going to be a higher risk to other people, because now they are not only endangering themselves in terms of fire or damage to the structure, but potentially endangering others around them,” she explains.
Vancouverites are now being encouraged to phone the city’s 3-1-1 number to report new hoarding concerns.
But Edwards says don’t phone if you merely think your neighbour is messy.
They’re looking for problems like blocked doors, windows, hallways, kitchens, or bathrooms.
“We need to hear more about these cases. We need to fully understand the impact of this in the community, and we need to, now that we’re ready, we need to start dealing with as many cases as we can to help as many people as we can,” she says.
