Hoarding task force streamlined, back in action

A city task force created to help hoarders, but left in limbo for two years because of privacy concerns and staff diversions to other jobs, is back in operation.

The hoarding and collecting behaviours task force is again triaging people who have hoarding problems and connecting them with services that can help, thanks to signed agreements between the city and health and community organizations in November.

What had originally been a task force made up of several civic departments and community groups is now a small Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service-led triage group made up of Shared Health, the Canadian Mental Health Association and Age and Opportunity, said Lisa Gilmour, the WFPS assistant chief of community risk reduction.

The organizations involved have agreed to help individuals and receive confidential personal information, she said.

“We weren’t able to provide their information to an external agency without their consent (before the agreement),” Gilmour said on Thursday.

“Now it is, who does it make sense to refer them to, who has the resources and who are best suited to providing the best care to people in this situation of hoarding. Those are the groups we’re working with.”

An update report on the task force’s activities in recent years said there were 27 cases referred to the task force in 2023, its first year.

But things cooled down over the past two years after privacy concerns were raised and civic social workers were diverted to assist with people in homeless encampments or displaced by fires.

Only nine people were referred to the task force in 2024, and another four last year who weren’t triaged or linked to an agency.

“In many cases we reached out and said we are working on our hoarding referrals and gave them a list of agencies available they could contact. We said we will be in touch again once we are able to refer, as well. Now it will be a little bit more of an outreach (rather) than asking people to look for support themselves,” Gilmour said, noting help won’t be provided unless the person agrees to it.

“If yes, then we can decide which is the appropriate partner, but if they say no that’s as far as it goes,” she said.

Gilmour said all civic employees can refer property owners to the task force, including paramedics, meter readers and bylaw officers.

Teresa Dukes, CEO of the Winnipeg and Manitoba branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), said people who are referred to them will be helped quickly because there are no waiting times for those who need support.

Dukes said the help they can provide includes having people join a peer support group, with some who have been in recovery for a decade or more, along with an in-home component where their staff can visit to make individualized plans for change.

“Two to four per cent of the population have serious hoarding problems,” she said.

“One of the major issues is the stigma and the guilt. Hoarding is something that builds up over years. We encourage individuals who are struggling to reach out for help.”

Stephanie Skakun, the CMHA’s executive director of programs, said their programs can be life changing for individuals.

“There is a lot of support and it really is focused on skills development and developing different and new perspectives on the realities related to hoarding. It really is incredible and can be life changing. We see significant outcomes and people making huge life changes,” she said.

“We see people reclaiming their spaces and, what that means is, they are reclaiming their lives.”

The report on the task force will be tabled next week at the city’s civic community services committee meeting.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca