A guest post by Sara Thompson, Gresham Sanitary Service, Gresham, Oregon
You have probably seen these homes on TV, or maybe you’ve seen them in person. People known as “hoarders” compulsively accumulate any and all kinds of things in their homes until it is packed to the ceilings with their every possession. Hoarders usually have an inability to let go of unnecessary items and clean their environment. In some cases, hoarders' homes become dilapidated and dangerous. If you are managing such a property, this can present a serious problem, but with careful planning and consideration, your house can be habitable once again.
Dealing With a Hoarding Problem People who become hoarders are in need of help, both with the situation at hand, and in terms of dealing with the disorder. Concerned family members and friends should have the hoarder examined by a doctor, and perhaps consult a therapist.
Helping the hoarder also involves completely cleaning out and organizing the home. Piles of clutter can make a home unlivable, creating both safety and sanitation issues. Thus, it’s critical for the home to be cleaned and organized before more problems arise. Possible issues involve fire (due to blocked exits, and huge amounts of paper and flammable objects) as well as the danger of illness from unsanitary conditions in the kitchen and bathroom.
Creating a Strategy People who are involved with a hoarding cleanup project need to develop a strategy for cleaning the home, as many hoarding situations can become overwhelming. The best strategy...
By Colin McCarthy, J.D., Robinson & Wood, San Jose, CA
"The childish propensity to intermeddle was the characteristic which the [property possessor] should have taken reasonable precautions to guard against."* Sometimes the courts come up with lyrical gems that get right to the heart of the matter. Through pages and pages of drivel, more often than not there is one pithy sentence which sums up the whole case and rule. I often wonder why the esteemed appellate justices do not just give us the facts of the case and the one pithy sentence. The books would be a lot smaller and cases a lot clearer.**
The above quote comes from a case which held both a tenant and the janitor the tenant retained liable for personal injuries to a three-year-old. The proof was that the tenant was in charge of a school. The tenant also, in the same building, housed families. (It was a hotel, and the tenant was the United States Navy). The tenant retained a janitorial service to clean said school on the weekends. Said janitorial service did so. Sometimes, they would stack the furniture -- desks and chairs -- in a pile. (To make cleaning the floor easier?) One weekend, a child was present in the school. Not a stretch, considering the building also contained living quarters. He climbed up on the furniture pile and promptly fell out the window. From the fourth floor.
The case had a lot to do with outdated and inapplicable classifications of the child...
Regardless of which side of the aisle you stand on, it’s hard not to notice the phenomenon that’s been sweeping across Facebook over the last few days. Supporters of gay marriage rights were asked to switch their Facebook profile picture to a red equal sign to represent their support, and it’s hard to deny the visual impact that this grassroots strategy has made.
Taking cues from this movement, it’s exciting to think about the ways in which businesses could harness this same potential to incite change and spread the word. For example, companies could ask employees to change their profile pictures in support of an important event, cause, or product launch. Or property managers could encourage residents who support a particular charity or other social movement to temporarily switch their picture to spread the word.
With little time, effort, or money, you could harness this tactic on your social media platforms to lead a movement. This simple approach has created unbelievable buzz, and is a superb branding strategy that could be put to use in a number of ways, across numerous industries, and with relatively little effort.
If you’ve ever questioned if social media is effective, the proof is in the sea of red equal signs taking over Facebook.
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This report is courtesy of the National Multi Housing Council.
In the aftermath of the Great Recession, absorptions dried up, causing the number of vacant apartments to rise beyond the normal range and creating what are termed “excess” vacant units. This excess inventory signaled a supply-demand imbalance that led to a sharp cutback in new production and lower returns. Over the past three years, however, the increase in apartment demand has outstripped the increase in supply, causing occupancy rates to trend up again and reducing excess apartment inventory. But to what extent has that excess inventory of vacant apartments shrunk?
Unfortunately, public data are too limited to provide a clear and simple answer. What follows is a brief summary of data sources and issues, along with a standard estimate of excess apartment vacancies. Following that is an assessment of the reliability of this sort of estimate. Our best estimate is that there is little excess vacancy nationally. This means that while there is excess vacancy in some metro areas, it is offset by other markets where the number of vacant apartments is below average.
Overview of Public Data on Vacancies
There are four main federal data sources that provide estimates of renter vacancy rates: Housing Vacancy Survey, Decennial Census, American Housing Survey and American Community Survey.
The most widely used is the Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS). It is available quarterly, making it the most frequent and timely data source, and has metro area vacancy rate estimates as well as vacancy rate...
