Timeline photos
This picture was taken in November 2022. This was a major camp sweep enacted by the city of Akron.
The only person to show up to help these people, besides myself, was Fran. They are pictured here on the left.
Fran and Sully are seen here helping Eddie move his life’s belongings onto my truck where I took him to a dilapidated garage. He lived in that garage the rest of the winter. I think he eventually moved somewhere else.
I often tell homeless people that I store humans, not stuff. I say that “joke” because hoarding is a massive issue.
I really wish we would study hoarding more because it causes huge hurdles for people in all socioeconomic situations. (As an auctioneer I have got stories.)
For example, I spent the better part of yesterday trying to board up our house. But what took the most time wasn’t putting up the boards. It was navigating how and where we were going to move massive amounts of stuff. We are nowhere near done with that process. I’m heading back over there now to keep working on it.
A person I have been talking about is very reluctant to move into housing because they don’t want to be too far away from their stuff. So we’re trying to get another storage unit.
I am not a hoarder. I’m an alcoholic. So it’s really hard for me to relate to the idea that a person would rather live homeless near their stuff than in a home with only some of their stuff. But hoarding is a real psychological issue. It will hang a person up just as bad as drugs or alcohol or gambling.