"Hoarding task force" (#161, Topic D)

Today is Father's Day, but the front-page story in today's Washington Post, on a resident being evicted from his own condo for junk he accumulated therein, brings no joy. My children label me a "pack rat," so the story is of particular interest to me. While reading, my first question is: How did the fire marshall find out? Is there a sophisticated surveillance program on what people do or keep in their residences -- much like wiretapping of their telephones and remote-controlling of their computer files -- that I am unaware of? Relax; not quite. In this particular case, it was found out by a social worker who reported it to the authorities. Why was the social worker in the house? The story does not say. What it does say is that "Only a 15-inch path ran through the two-bedroom condomimium." So what? It is passable; what difference does it make whether the passageway is 1'3" or 3'1"? Using this as the sole justification for condemning the condo as "Unfit for Human Habitation" is really overstating the case; no wonder that resident filed suit, against Arlington County officials, "claiming that the eviction violated his civil rights." The fire marshal is said to be concerned with "whether firefighters and paramedics can get into a home ... and then, more importantly, set out." The article also cites Montgomery County's Working Group on Hoarding, on its residents' hoarding "rotten meat, roaches, organic waste, mice, rats and bateria that can become airborne." Granted that these substances cited by Montgomery County (in this county I am a resident) have public-health implications, there are so different from inorganic matters such as boxes (WP has a color photo of empty boxes in the evictee's condo) and old newspapers. In any case, task forces find hoarders -- me and 1.4 million others like me -- are likely to have "mental illness, brain dysfunction, and obsessive-compulsory disorders." What an uplifting story for Father's Day. Cheers.