\n Kelvin Ford has lived in a terraced house in High Road, Swaythling for seven years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kelvin said his hoarding began seven years ago when his parents and his Jack Russell, Dinky, died, and he replaced loved ones with possessions.\n<\/p>\n
\n His home is now barely navigable, with glass bottles, plastic bags, postcards, gardening tools and China plates piled high along the hallways.\n<\/p>\n
\n While he is in contact with social workers, Kelvin says he is not getting enough support for his hoarding disorder, which he says amounts to a disability.\n<\/p>\n
\n To make matters worse, Doctors at Southampton General Hospital have warned that his leg may need to be amputated because of type 2 diabetes.\n<\/p>\n
\n He now fears losing both his home and his leg.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 58-year-old said: \u201cI\u2019m really angry. [Social services have] let me down big time.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019m caught between a court case and the hospital. I don\u2019t know what to do.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Kelvin Ford, 58, at the doorway to his Swathyling home (Image: Xavi Straw)\n<\/p>\n
\n Kelvin’s now inaccessible kitchen area (Image: Xavi Straw)\n<\/p>\n
\n Darren, 36, one of Kelvin\u2019s lifelong friends and fellow hoarder, said they had known and supported each other for 19 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cMost people don’t even try to understand us. We feel like it\u2019s not even recognised as a problem. We feel judged, like we\u2019re lazy, but this is a real condition.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe found friendship in isolation. Nobody seems to take our problem seriously, so we\u2019re forced to look out for each other.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Kelvin and his friends are now trying to empty the house as best they can in order to avoid eviction.\n<\/p>\n
\n A Southampton City Council spokesperson said: \u201cThe wellbeing of our residents is important to us, and we are working with the resident to understand their circumstances and provide appropriate support.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis includes considering practical assistance and suitable housing options where appropriate.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Describing the condition, another friend of Kelvin’s and fellow hoarder said: \u201cYou start making little alleyways through your house from the kitchen to the bedroom until, before you know it, you\u2019ve piled your house to the ceiling.\n<\/p>\n
\n “He keeps himself to himself. He feels like he can\u2019t trust people anymore.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe thinks it\u2019s just a few bottles and empty cartons, but they\u2019re piled to the ceiling. He\u2019s got about 300 toilet rolls in there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kelvin Ford has lived in a terraced house in High Road, Swaythling for seven years. Kelvin said his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-626532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}