Western Daily Press (Saturday)
‘You need years to get a result with hoarding, not just a big spring clean’
He plays the feckless Martin Mucklow, dad of Kurtan and Kerry, in the hit BBC mockumentary This Country, but Paul Cooper’s full-time job is working with people who are drowning in clutter. With more than 45,000 in Gloucestershire now struggling with a hoarding disorder, he tells Sue Smith why people should not dismiss the problem as a lifestyle choice.
ARRIVING at the home of one of his clients, Paul Cooper was perplexed to find him waiting on the doorstep with an oversized backpack.
Years of hoarding had finally rendered the man homeless. Unable to open the front door of his four-bed, mid-terraced home more than six inches, he was ready to start sleeping on the streets.
“I’ve known rich people who have crammed one house to the rafters with clutter and then just bought another one,” says Paul who covers the South West for Berkshire-based Hoarding Disorders UK.
His worst case involved a woman who had 36 cats and, through the organisation, he knows of a doctor in Scotland who had 120 dogs in her home.
Paul has been called out by worried family members of a man who insisted on keeping a cement mixer in the living room, another was living in his car in his driveway because mountains of clutter had cut off all access to his home.
“Families often don’t understand. They see it as rejection, and struggle to see why a relative would prefer stuff to them,” says Paul.
Since August last year the NHS has recognised hoarding as a medical condition following guidelines from the World Health Organisation and there are now an estimated 3.5 million hoarders in the UK.
Hoarding Disorders UK was set up in Newbury by Jo Cooke, the daughter of a hoarder.
After suffering a heart attack four years ago at the age of 53, Paul, who had previously worked in sales, which by his own admission he wasn’t very good at, was looking for a lifestyle change.
He lives in Cirencester and now covers the South West, responding to calls from the fire service, the police, family members, housing associations and environmental officers, after they have been alerted to a hoarding issue.
“We are usually called in when the hoarding has reached an extreme stage,” says Paul.
“The problem is usually picked up much quicker if people are living in social housing as there tend to be many more checks from officials who will notice if something is wrong.
“But if people own their own properties, or live in big houses, hoarding disorders can sometimes be concealed by the luxury of space. People can hide it very well for a long time.
“Hoarders can have many years of packing out sheds, attics and other rooms in the house before the problem becomes visible.
“They may have immaculate front lawns and be a member of the local gym just to use the toilets and showers.”
The reasons why someone starts hoarding are often complex and not fully understood. It can be a symptom of depression, anxiety or loneliness but more often than not, Paul says it is triggered by a major event such as an illness or a bereavement.
“One woman I worked with had piles of newspapers, floor to ceiling, throughout her house and when we worked our way down to the bottom, we found the first newspaper she had collected was dated the day after her husband died.
“A neighbour had brought her the paper every day for 30 years and she cherished it as that neighbour was the only human contact she had,” says Paul.
Hoarding Disorders UK works closely with charities such as the Red Cross Befriending Service and Cruse Bereavement Care.
It puts people in touch with support groups, although there is yet to be one set up in Gloucestershire.
Paul says hoarding can also be a result of lack of life skills, recalling a young woman who had grown up in a squat.
“She had never known anything different,” he says.
But there is no quick fix to the problem says Paul and he is dismissive of the many TV programmes that have been made on the subject where homes have been cleared within three days.
“They are a bit stereotypical, not all hoarding is squalid and dirty and realistically you need years to get a result.
“We have to work very slowly and that’s where family members can fail as they go into ‘help mode’ and try to barge in and throw everything out in a big spring clean and that just doesn’t work,” he says.
“This clutter has been accumulated over many years so it is not going to disappear over one weekend.”
In the case of the 36 cats the RSPCA had to remove them two by two over a period of time, leaving the owner with her two favourites.
“If you go in and just take the lot you will find the house full again within a week,” says Paul.
Hoarders tend to form a really strong connection to physical objects and it is also common to find they often hate landfill and waste.
“Letting go and decluttering can bring feelings of being wasteful and frivolous and can even evoke a sense of disloyalty and abandonment of the objects to which they have formed an emotional attachment.
“That’s why we work alongside homeless charities. Sometimes if the hoarder can see clothing going to good use, they will be more inclined to part with it and that can spur them on to clear out more things from their wardrobe,” he says.
They also work with a Berkshire crafts charity which will take fabrics, wool, bedding and towels to make blankets for women’s refuges and Angel Blankets for stillborn babies.
Paul says: “It’s a long, long process. We have to go through everything very slowly.
“There will be important documents such as birth and insurance certificates and passports buried in among the chaos.
“Everything has to be checked. I
One woman I worked with had piles of newspapers, floor to ceiling, and when we worked our way down to the bottom, we found the first newspaper she had collected was dated the day after her husband died
PAUL COOPER
once opened a box that someone was prepared to throw out and it had £300 inside.”
The approach from the organisation is non-judgemental, with the main priority to improve health and safety.
“Establishing a rapport is vital. The person is the first priority, their stuff is secondary and it is not about imposing our own agenda or our own standards of living,” says Paul.
And he adds: “Compulsive hoarding can make life a misery and it also poses a significant risk of fire, infestation and other dangers.”
Statistics show that 25 per cent of house fires in the UK are in the homes of hoarders and while 90 per cent of house fires can normally be contained, that figure drops to 45 per cent for hoarders.
And the ripple effect of hoarding can have an impact on several generations of a family.
“We worked with a man who wanted his granddaughter to stay for Christmas, which meant clearing out the spare bedroom and the dining room.
“It was only during the clearing that we discovered there was actually a dining room table in there under all the clutter. But now his now granddaughter visits regularly and we help him to maintain his home,” says Paul.
And he adds: “It takes a range of approaches to help people to achieve a mindset where the desire to clear overcomes the need to keep.
Motivation and mindset can be key to long-lasting success.”
He says the majority of hoarders tend to be people living alone but he has seen families where children have been taken into care because of the safety risk.
“That’s hard to deal with,” he says. While car boot sales used to be the source of much clutter Paul says internet shopping means hoarders can order day and night seven days a week without leaving their home.
“I’ve been into a house where you couldn’t move for unopened brown cardboard boxes,” he says.
Filming for This Country only takes up three days a year for Paul which he says he “absolutely loves”.
The third series will be aired this summer and he says the initial bug for acting saw him try to get an agent to pursue a career in that field.
“But it didn’t work out and now I am doing this and it’s hugely rewarding. I genuinely like helping people,” he says.
And with that he was off to buy a bicycle for an 85-mile charity ride.