East Hamilton hoarding issue raises concerns for neighbourhood

One East Hamilton neighbourhood is dealing with a house that has a yard full of junk and is an eyesore for everyone. There is a chewed up couch, garbage, and even a bathtub covering the front lawn on Adair Ave.

Doug Forsythe lives across the street and knew the original owners well. He says their son now owns the house but doesn’t come by often.

“It’s a pain in the neck. When his parents were alive it was all trimmed up.”

Sierra Sneath says she and other neighbours complained because there were two dogs inside for a couple of years without people living with them.

“They’ve tried everybody- Animal Control, PETA- to get rid of the dogs. Nothing could be done because we couldn’t prove they didn’t have access to water.”

She says the dogs were taken away weeks ago, but a pile of trash came out of the house on Monday.

“Final cry for help, call the news station, get the story out. We finally got the by-law people out this week.”

By-law officers were there by Tuesday and left a notice on the door saying this mess needs to be cleaned up by next Monday. If it isn’t, by-law will again try to reach out to the owner, and if they can’t get a hold of them, a contractor will be hired to clean this up at the owner’s expense.

“If the owner is still not prepared to clean up the mess, we will send contractors in to go and clean up the property. If residents have to live with that mess next to them, it’s important for us to get it cleaned up.”

If the mess was inside the home, like in a hoarding situation, there isn’t much the city could do.

“Municipal law enforcement doesn’t have the authority to go inside the property, however if we come across a situation we will report it to outside stakeholders.”

In most hoarding situations, a mental health worker is called in to talk to the home owner. That has not happened for this case but by-law officials say the mess should be cleaned up by Friday next week.