Monday, October 3, 2011

Hurst uses team approach for code violations, hoarding



by:  a


The woman who owned a 1,550-square-foot house on Hurstview Drive lived in only a few square feet of it.

The rest of the house was essentially inaccessible except by cats and opossums that came and went at will through holes in the walls and ceilings.

Boxes, clothing, fast-food containers, junk mail and just junk filled the rest of the house -- in some places piled to the ceiling. Even the front porch was cluttered with animal carriers, old rugs, furniture and debris.

When neighbors complained about the house, Hurst police, animal control and code enforcement officers and workers with the Mental Health Mental Retardation of Tarrant County's law liaison office formed the Hurst Intervention Team to deal with the situation.
"It was in June of 2010," said Hurst police officer Sara Tooker. "I feel like that was the genesis."

Tooker said the woman, in her late 60s, seemed confused and was thin, disheveled and reeked of body odor.

She was living in a chair by the front door, said Michelle Lazo, the city's assistant community development director.

"There was no access to any room without climbing over debris," she said. "She couldn't get to her shower or her kitchen."

The woman was a hoarder..."  More

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