Interesting interview. I’m a little surprised at the disdain he shows these people–though I guess my own pity isn’t really much better.
Fascinating that most of his crew are former felons. Might advertising this fact be an effective deterrent to crime?
This same thing happened in my neighborhood. The old lady living in the house was taken away by the City DOPH-the house has been vacant for two years. As far as I know, the city was trying to get a condemnation order, so the house could be torn down. Speaking to a neighbor (who lives across the street), I learned that the house is full of trash-no cats or animals (fortunately). The abutters must be very upset-something like this really destroys property values. Quite frankly, these people are seriously mentally ill-they need to be put into mental hospitals-their houses are a threat to the neighbors. A few years back, there was a similar case in another town-they wound up burning the house down-at least that didn’t risk tyhe health of the poor guys who have to clean these places up.
Funny you mention the disdain he shows…that kinda stuck out to me too.
There was an interview he did last year for the same show where he talked about the episode where they had the guy that hoarded the pinball machines and arcade games. (Matt also got his hand crushed in the episode when trying to move a large racing game) When watching that episode you could see him getting irritated and arguing with the guy, which he admitted to in the interview. But then went on to say that he has since visited him (and a few other hoarders) on occasion and considers them friends. (I am at work so can’t track down that interview)
You guys never caught on during the episode Matt holds a certain disdain for these people? He’s the cleaner, not the therapist and the tone of his voice combined with his choices of words perfectly reflects his opinion during the shows.
I’ve read some of Paxton’s comments on the A&E message boards and he is very aware that the people he is dealing with are sick and not really in control of themselves. He also confessed to having been an out-of-control gambler at one time, so I think he gets what it’s like to be at the mercy of an obsession. That said, he is willing to vent some of the frustration that the average viewer at home is feeling, unlike the therapists, who have to keep their cool. (I could never be a therapist, and certainly not a therapist working with compulsive hoarders.)
I’ve always thought that was heat-of-the-moment stuff, and that on reflection he realized that these were people who really needed help regardless of how frustrated he was when trying to haul the crap out of their house.
I thought it was interesting that they made the decision that it was more economical to raze Shanna’s house rather than rehab it. I’ve wondered that about a lot of these cases. Even after the cleanup, the house is still so filthy that I still couldn’t imagine wanting to live and eat there.
The ecoli and bacteria is probably so ingrained into the house you’ll never get it out. Not to mention the stench. It’d take years to get rid of that – if you ever could.
Even if it was close, the only way to really guarantee a livable house would be to build one. I think it was almost exactly the same cost to fix and create a new one, so making the new one is definitely the good option.
I used to consider Hoarders and Hoarding: Buried Alive as guilty pleasures, and to a certain extent, I still do. But I am put off by the extreme mental illness that they are starting to showcase. In earlier seasons/episodes, the people were relatively functional, and the hoarding obsessions and compulsions seemed to be the primary (or A primary) problem. These later seasons and episodes are showing people for whom the hoarding is CLEARLY a secondary symptom of some more severe mental illnesses or dementia processes. It makes me more uncomfortable to watch them.
That’s one of the reasons why pet owners end up having to pay such large, usually non-refundable, deposits when renting. All it takes is one renter with a poorly housebroken dog or cats who go outside of the litterbox. The urine seeps into wood and can never be fully cleaned. At least you can pull out and replace carpet.
But my 75 cats would never do anything like that!
Even if it could have been cleaned, I think I recall significant structural damage.
Well, I’d open the windows, but my pigeons would escape.
And the cat episode mentioned in the spoiler above aired this week. I watched it curled up with my cat. Horrified.
I liked how Dr. Robin recoiled in horror when she opened the fridge. You rarely see such unguarded moments in Hoarding shows. Of course, opening a refrigerator to see a dead eyeless cat looking at you at eye-level must have been a bit startling.
I’m glad Matt spoiled that one and I was sort of prepared for it. It was the ones in the closet and not at least refrigerated that got to me, though. Man! I hope therapy helped her.
I lasted a minute or so on the dead cat collection. I could cope with the corpses, but the live ones so obviously sick and suffering, I just couldn’t deal with it.
I also wonder if the producers don’t call the authorities in advance to set up the deadline so as to get good TV on a more predictable schedule. I could also see loved ones or neighbors precipitating a crisis and then calling the producers just to move things along.
One of the posts above mentions that these people “perceive” that their stuff is being stolen. This is because it is being stolen in many of these cases. Whatever other problems they may have, there is nothing faulty about their perception in that regard.
It doesn’t matter that we can’t see the value in what is being taken. They do and that is what matters. I find the theft and bullying much harder to stomach than some of the messes that don’t involve bodily fluids or vermin.
When their problem poses a health hazard to the outside world then I could see something being done against their wishes. But when they only put themselves at risk, or create an eyesore, it falls into the category of “none of my business.” As these shows have matured the cases have gotten progressively worse so intervention is more justified. But some of the early ones just made me mad that these people were being harassed. I still don’t like it when they are ill-treated.
I remember one guy who was dying of cancer and here all of these people were forcing him to spend his final hours on this earth tidying up his lot when he was perfectly happy with it the way it was. That was just all kinds of wrong.
I will stop there before I get too worked up.
Well, it’s extremely rare that any hoarding situation does not involve others. Even if there are no animals being hoarded or others being hurt, most hoarders’ homes are havens for vermin of all kinds that will surely not be satisfied with only one house to run rampant in. And at the very least, even a (near-mythical) non-infested but full home will pose a hazard to any firefighter or EMT who needs to gain access.