Call for landlords to support hoarding tenants in first ever national pledge

Left to right: Prima Sustainment and Cohesion Manager Jenny Devon with tenant Ruth Cookson.

During National Hoarding Awareness Week which started on Monday, a group of Merseyside housing associations is calling on the sector to join it in making a first-of-a-kind national pledge to support hoarding tenants.

Prima established the Housing and Hoarding Innovation Group in 2025.

The group has grown and now has 13 housing association members including: Alpha Living, Cobalt Housing, Family Housing Association, Livv Housing Group, Magenta Living, Onward Homes, Prima, Regenda Homes, Riverside, South Liverpool Homes, Torus, Westfield Housing Association and Wirral Methodist Housing Association.

The aim of The Housing and Hoarding Innovation Group is to standardise the approach to support given by housing associations and local authorities to people living with hoarding, a complex mental health condition.

The group brings a wealth of experience and together they aim to improve safety in tenant’s homes and support them to have their voice heard, through a collaborative approach to service delivery.

In addition to sharing best practice and raising awareness, the Housing and Hoarding Innovation Group has been working on the concept of developing a national charter that will set out what people living with the condition can expect from their landlord.  

The charter will help registered providers to identify hoarders and develop methods of delivering appropriate support. It will also set standards for training and education for staff and contractors.

The group is committed to the development of the pledge and is now asking other landlords from across the country that are interested in joining to get in touch. 

With over six million people living in social housing and a conservative estimate from support group Hoarding Disorders UK that 2 – 6 per cent of the population are hoarders, the pledge has the potential to help hundreds of thousands of tenants.

The call comes after feedback Prima received from residents suffering with hoarding disorder.

In 2023, Prima established a peer-to-peer support group called Bringing Hoarders Together that meet fortnightly in Birkenhead, Wirral. They are part of a wider network called Hoarders Helping Hoarders, which currently has 19 peer groups across the Merseyside area.

Having controlled her hoarding disorder, Prima tenant Ruth Cookson (see case study below) became a founder of the Bringing Hoarders Together that sees sufferers supporting each other and navigating challenges together. 

Sustainment and Cohesion Manager at Prima, Jenny Devon, said: “Tenants and residents attending Bringing Hoarders Together meetings say there is currently a very inconsistent approach from housing associations and local authorities when speaking to hoarders and managing cases.

“The language, approach, systems and support varies depending on the organisation and they want to standardise how people can access support “

“As hoarding takes place in the home, the sector is at the heart of the issue and perfectly placed to create a co-ordinated, compassionate approach which is what the pledge will provide. 

“Social landlords are permanent fixtures in tenants’ lives and our ongoing relationships with them means we can offer long-term support so the more housing associations and local authorities that get involved in this movement, the better.” 

Prima says cases need managing carefully given it is a sensitive mental health condition while balancing landlords’ legal duty to ensure tenants and their homes are safe and compliant.

Access to gas and electrical checks are made more difficult by hoarding and it can cause physical health problems too due to  unhygienic conditions, increased risk of  damp and mould, infestations, health and safety hazards from reduced access and create an increased  fire risk residents and their neighbours.

Case study – Ruth’s story

Prima tenant Ruth Cookson lives in a top floor flat of a three-storey block in Leasowe, Wirral.

Her hoarding reached a dangerous level after Covid-19 which meant action had to be taken for her own mental health and so fire and gas safety check regulations were not breached.

Ruth said: “I have always been a hoarder even as a kid but it was in the past 10 years when my condition started to get really bad.

“In 2017 I came out of a bad relationship and then it got even worse with everything building up.

“The pandemic followed a few years later and after this is when I got help from Prima.  With their encouragement and support I managed to slowly but surely get on top of everything.”

 Ruth is now involved in the Bringing Hoarders Together tenant and resident group to encourage others to take action to improve their lives.

“Speak to your housing officer,” she said. 

“Pluck up the courage and say: ‘I’m a hoarder and I need help’ and your housing association will work with you to come up with a plan to tackle and then manage the problem.

“Don’t be afraid to ask for help - it is the best thing I’ve ever done.

“I can let people into my home now. I’m not opening my door and then hiding my face in embarrassment.

 “If I didn’t ask for help my flat would still have been like a demolition derby with people having to climb over everything just to get in.”

About hoarding

Hoarding was recognised by the NHS as a complex mental health condition in 2013.

Symptoms include keeping or collecting so many things that it affects someone’s life or the lives of people they care about and not being able to manage the things they have saved but still find it very difficult to get rid of them.

The exact cause of hoarding is not fully known but is believed to involve genetic, neurological and environmental factors including trauma, family history and mental health conditions that often coincide with depression, anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorders.

 Emotionally it often leads to shame, isolation, fear, anxiety, being overwhelmed and a feeling of hopelessness while the physical impact on daily lives includes health and safety, relationships, legal risks and financial strain.