The ACT government will fund a support service for people living with hoarding, amid fears high summer temperatures might create a fire risk.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The issue has come to the fore with the shifting of more than 1000 public housing tenants into new homes as the government clears Northbourne Avenue and other public housing blocks.
The government rejects the suggestion that the public housing renewal program has sparked the need for a support service, but the Mental Health Community Coalition said public housing was a hot spot.
Chief executive Simon Viereck said community groups helping people move from public housing in the inner north had come across a significant number of people living with hoarding but it was often a hidden problem.
"The reason why we see public housing complexes as a hot spot is that there are other services that go in and see [hoarding problems]," he said.
"We don't really know how many people would be living with hoarding problems. If they own their own property, then it would only be raised by family perhaps or at a point when someone becomes elderly and needs further care," Mr Viereck said.
ACT Health has called for quotes for a trial, expected to start in January 2019.
The ACT government has sent the Woden Community Service a request for quote for the service. Woden Community Service self-funded a similar program last year.
The ACT government currently manages six severe and complex hoarding cases through the hoarding case management group.
"The summer months often see an exacerbation of hoarding conditions, so this trial is aiming to improve outcomes for people who have hoarding behaviours and their neighbours during this time," a spokesperson for ACT Health said.
The proposed hoarding support service would provide counselling, social and advocacy support and link clients with the regulator and existing measures.
The hoarding support service would initially be funded up to $200,000 for five months from January 2019, with an evaluation at the end of the trial.
Woden Community Service and the Mental Health Community Coalition ACT have both called on the ACT government to provide funding for a hoarding response service in submissions to the upcoming ACT budget.
Woden Community Service's budget submission called for funding for community workers to help government respond to crisis situations and help refer to further supports to help address underlying issues.
"There are many examples of forced clean-ups only being a short term solution," the submission said.
Woden Community Service chief executive Chris Redmond said the group had been working with the Canberra Living Conditions Network to provide hoarding support and this was the second time they had called on the ACT government to provide funding.
"We self-funded a program last year to develop a response to hoarding in the ACT, through that we've been working through the Health Services directorate to address the more serious cases of hoarding in Canberra," he said.
The program would address the behaviour that sees people collect items in the first place, Mr Redmond said.
The public housing renewal program has relocated 985 people from 947 households to new homes, a spokesperson for the Community Services directorate said. In all, 1288 households are to be moved.
A spokesperson for ACT Health said the trial was not related the public housing renewal program and that most hoarding cases occurred at privately owned residences.
Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
