At one end of the table sits Tony*, who showers at his local leisure centre in Birkenhead every day because his landlord won’t fix his bathroom due to hoarding. Then there’s Sarah*, who ended up homeless with her three teenagers after eviction for hoarding - and now, in a new home, the problem has resurfaced, but she’s terrified to ask for help lest she lose her property again.
Sian Cowley, 35, who has struggled with hoarding for decades, says: “I’ve lived without central heating for two years. A lot of us live without basics like hot water, heating and cooking because we are too scared to get people in for repairs due to the threat of eviction.” These three shared their stories during a Bringing Hoarders Together session, a fortnightly peer support group in Wirral, Merseyside, run by Prima Group housing association, where dozens find a safe forum to open up about living with their mental health condition.
A Guardian investigation has found that since 2020, UK fire services have recorded a 78% increase in fires involving hoarding. Across the country, brigades have logged thousands of homes as high-risk; in London alone, more than 2,000 properties were flagged last year, up from 1,200 four years earlier. Hoarding was formally classified as a mental health condition by the World Health Organization in 2018, but those affected say they are scared to seek help due to fear of eviction and feel trapped in dangerous homes.
“You’re better off being a drug addict. You’re better off being an alcoholic,” says Laura Miller, 65, who was offered help only after falling on stairs over clutter. “TV programmes about hoarders have just perpetuated it as entertainment, taking the mick out of poor people.” Chloe*, who began hoarding after her mother’s suicide, adds: “As soon as you say you’re a hoarder, people think you’ve got 10,000 cats and loads of cockroaches. But we’ve all got something that’s made us like this - ours is stuff.”
In an attempt to improve support, Prima Group has launched a first-of-its-kind national hoarding pledge for housing providers: instead of spending thousands on enforced clearances or eviction court battles, they promise to work with residents and get them help. Jenny Devon, a sustainment and cohesion manager at Prima Group, says: “What happens a lot is they get a skip and clear the whole place. But it’s that person’s stuff - a trinket linked to trauma or a deceased parent. It just needs more empathy.”
Jo Cooke, director of Hoarding Disorders UK, says in nearly 15 years she has never known an enforced clearance or eviction to help. “When the threat looms, it only increases hoarding behaviours,” she says. According to the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (Iriss), almost 100% of people who experience a property clearance without behavioural therapy will regress to hoarding more rapidly.
Ruth Cookson, 53, a Prima resident who helped set up Bringing Hoarders Together four years ago, says the smell in her hoarded home was so bad visitors had to wear masks. She ignored eviction warnings until the Covid lockdown pushed her to seek help. Now her home is safe and clean, she can finally get the cat she’s been desperate for. “I’m here to say: if you think you can’t do it, yes, you can do it. I’m living proof you can,” she says.