EDMOND — One Edmond family will be the focus of a television program shedding light on an increasingly common problem.

Behind closed doors, many Oklahomans struggle with a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder known as “hoarding,” which is marked by a need to acquire and keep things, even if the items are worthless, hazardous or unsanitary.

Those with this condition often live in homes in which countertops, tables, stairways and essentially every free space is stacked with things, with only narrow pathways leading from room to room.

This inability to discard useless items has had a crippling effect on the lives of more than 3 million people in the United States who suffer from this disorder, and come Monday, one family from Edmond will be featured on the series premier of the “Hoarders” television program on the A&E cable network.

“In this case the children of the lady receiving help worked with their mother in completing the application for help from the show,” said Valorie Rodgers with state Rep. Danny Morgan’s office.

Following the show there will be a period of counseling the person being helped must agree to complete.

“The hardest thing was getting the woman to do it,” Rodgers said. “The lady had to agree to six months of after-care counseling including personal organization of her property.”

Rodgers also said because of the sensitivity of the nature of the show the name of the family is not available at this time for publication.

House Democratic Leader Morgan studied hoarding last year when he was approached by a constituent to look into the death of Kitty Lewis, an Oklahoma City woman who lived for years and died alone in a home that had been deemed uninhabitable by county officials.

Terry Humphrey, the director of the city of Edmond’s code enforcement division, contributed to the interim study and sought legislative action to add municipal employees to the list of mandated reporters to the Department of Human Services, as code enforcement officers are often the first to see deteriorating living conditions.

Morgan was able to include this language in House Bill 2999, which was signed by the governor and will take effect in November.

Humphrey also participated in the “Hoarders” documentary which will be featured on Labor Day, and he says he spent quite a bit of time discussing this issue from the code enforcement perspective.

“What we need to realize is that this is not just a problem occurring somewhere else, in another state, but it’s happening right here, in our small towns, in urban areas, in communities all across Oklahoma,” Humphrey said. “Last year this same program featured a home in Muskogee, and soon will focus on a home in Edmond.

“These are often last ditch efforts to save a person’s home from being condemned, to save them from losing their children, their spouses, their loved ones and animals. We need to become more educated and aware of this largely hidden phenomenon before it becomes deadly or causes a health risk to neighbors.”

This session Morgan, of Prague, successfully created a Vulnerable Adult Intervention Task Force via Senate Bill 1601. The task force will study how to best provide interdisciplinary community assistance, intervention, and referral services for persons with mental or physical illnesses or disabilities, dementia or other related disease or condition. Speaker Chris Benge has appointed Humphrey to serve on this task force.

“I am proud of and appreciate Terry and all the other countless individuals who daily work with our most vulnerable citizens in order to help them reclaim their life,” Morgan said.

The “Hoarders” television program on the A&E cable network will debut with back-to-back premieres on at 8 p.m. on Monday.



THE STATE House of Representatives media relations department contributed to this report.