For the residents of Bonara Avenue, Bondi this week was described by some wag as " Groundhog Day " ! Once again a fleet of council trucks and an army of council workers descended on the huge pile of decaying rubbish stockpiled in and around an otherwise neat little cottage in this very sought after and expensive suburb.
The " Hoarder family " were at it again - and this was the sixteenth time that the council had resorted to a court order to force the cleanup of decaying rubbish which was emitting offensive smells and providing refuge for an army of rats and other vermin. It was described as " everything and anything " that the women in this family collect and store on their property, filling the verandah, all the garden area and even extending out onto the nature strip.
After the fifteenth cleanup long suffering neighbours thought relief was at hand. The council was cumulatively owed $ 370,000 for their work and they sued to recover $ 180,000, forcing the property to face public auction, but at the last minute the family found the cash to clear that debt - and the hoarding of rubbish began again.
The council also obtained a court order to prevent any of the family from coming within ten metres of the work crew and one of the women tried to prevent items being removed. She was arrested and charged with " wilful obstruction ", put before a court and released on bail. She returned to the house and did exactly the same again, and this led to a further arrest.
Perhaps we need to have a look at the laws on the statute books to save people from what amount to " compulsive disorders " which force them to break the law and reduce themselves to penury. In milder form these instances of compulsion are common - and usually harmless. For some people it takes the form of endlessly feeling the need to wash their hands, while others have a compulsion to inspect all electricity outlets to ensure that they are turned off.
Clearly, accumulating rubbish on a residential property breaks council by-laws and poses a public health risk. If the present regular intervention to force a cleanup continues the debt will eventually force the sale of the property and the women will find themselves both homeless and impoverished. It is in their own interests - and in the interests of the other unfortunate residents of Bonara Avenue - to bring a permanent change to this situation.
Clearly, the usual injunctions issued by the courts is ignored because this compulsion to collect and hoard rubbish has a psychiatric base. It is not the common action of ordinary people, although many do have something similar in a much milder form. In such cases, this manifests itself in a reluctance to dispose of items which " may become handy " later in that persons mind. Rarely does that transpose itself into a mountain of junk that overwhelms a house and garden.
It is this very extremity that is staying the hand of those tasked with dealing with this problem. These women are the legal owners of the property and forcing medical attention on unwilling patients is both abhorrent to the medical profession and to those framing the legal code. It is usually only as a last resort and most people are only taken into medical care against their will when they pose either harm to others or to themselves.
The law bends over backward to deliver privacy and the right to be " eccentric " - within reasonable limits - but this constant and compulsive hoarding shows no sign of ceasing and is heading towards an inevitable outcome. If these women end up broke and homeless, surely all the signs that they needed help that was medically denied will be levelled against those who had the power to intervene - and didn't ?
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