UPDATE: Company to remove much of interior of hoarder’s home
October 11, 2012 - 6:37 pm
The Southern Nevada Health District decided Thursday that simply removing the drywall from the contaminated home of hoarder Kenneth Epstein is not enough to make it habitable.
The insulation, the heating and air conditioning ducts, the window frames and the flooring because the hoarder's home in Sun City Summerlin is so filthy. Another administrative warrant was obtained by officials giving them legal permission to remove so much of the interior.
A demolition company will perform the work. The cost of that, plus the other cleanup efforts, will be charged to Epstein. It will be up to him to reconstruct the interior.
The home, which was purchased by his mother in 2004, has been cited repeatedly since 2007 for violations of city codes.
The multi-jurisdictional cleanup, which began Oct. 5, is 95 percent finished, City of Las Vegas spokesman David Riggleman said Thursday.
After one week's worth of cleanup, 41 truckloads of unhealthy materials have been removed. A fourth storage container has been brought in for the items Epstein wants to keep. Among the items hauled away as too contaminated to salvage are two dishwashers, two stoves and six refrigerators, all taken from the home.
The cat count also increased. It's up to 15 dead cats found inside the Gold Bank Drive home and 40 live ones for a total of 55 cats.
On Saturday, the city plans to put a tent over the duplex and the storage containers to decontaminate the home and the salvageable stuff Epstein wants to keep.
After that decontamination, the removal of the drywall and the other structural elements should begin next week, Riggleman estimated.
Each day's report of the stuff packed into the home is horrifying, but nearly everyone I speak to says the bigger issue is: Will Epstein agree to accept therapy to overcome his need to hoard?
If he doesn't, it's likely the hoarding will resume as soon as city and county officials leave the neighborhood. The neighbors know it, the officials know it. But Epstein has to want help, nobody can force him to get it.