Hoarders: A Look at Fairfax County's Task Force
The Fairfax County Hoarding Task Force is a collaborative body that deals with compulsive hoarders in the area. It responds to up to 150 calls every year.
Boxes, old clothes, newspapers, empty cans, food scraps and animal waste. Blocked doorways and windows. So much clutter a human being can barely move around. These are just a few of the things found in residences tackled by the Fairfax County Interagency Hoarding Committee. The committee, more commonly known as the Hoarding Task Force, responds to and works to resolve hoarding cases in the county, and there are more than most residents might think. From 2008 to 2010, there were 413 cases of hoarding in Fairfax County. Officials responded to 128 cases in 2010, down from 146 in 2009 and 139 in 2008. According to a Johns Hopkins University Study, up to 4 percent of a community’s general population may have a tendency for hoarding. “What’s …
