Now Robin's on the verge of eviction by the sheriff,
but she still hasn't packed a single thing.
And film this little sample
of her current living conditions.
Take a look.
This is what should be the kitchen.
(dog barking) A lot of this
is stuff that we pulled out
of bedrooms.
It's nice to have things
to hold me up.
This is the bathroom.
To see this is just horrifying to me.
Just horrifying.
You know, I want it to be horrifying.
And when she comes out here and sees her life
on these big screens, sometimes it can be
a real wake up call.
Now Tracy says she's kept her mother's dirty little secret
for a long time.
And dirty is not a big enough word.
She says her mom ruined her childhood because she cared more
about her objects and her animals than her own children.
My mom has always been a hoarder.
My mom's house is vile.
She has a very hard time throwing things away, even trash.
She'll hang onto newspapers, books, childhood toys.
My mom is an animal hoarder as well.
There's flies buzzing around.
There's dog poop, cat poop; it's overwhelming.
She has hoarded everything from chickens, horses, goats,
tortoises, but mostly dogs and cats.
So right now she is living with six dogs and one cat.
My mom wasn't always around when we were kids.
She was pretty absent.
My sister and I were left to fend for ourselves,
to get ourselves to school; food was always scarce.
I remember one point, I ate dog food.
Didn't care for the taste, so I tried a dog bone.
I always felt dirty, and I didn't want people
physically close to me.
My clothes smelt like my home,
and it was always embarrassing.
When I was five, my mom sent us to live with my grandma.
And we lived there for about five years,
until my grandfather passed away.
My mom has done immense damage to me psychology growing up.
When I've tried to confront my mom with things
from the past, she gets very explosive, very defensive,
and you're left to feel like a horrible person
because she's sick.
I do want her to recognize the damage she has done.
In the last five years, my mom's hoarding
has gotten so out of control.
She's on the verge of being evicted,
and that really scares me.
My mom is very self-sabotaging.
She's her own worst enemy.
We have all tried to help my mom; there's just no point.
We're just gonna end up right back here again.
Well it's been eight years since Tracy paid a visit
to really observe her living conditions.
Now, our cameras were with her for her emotional return.
We're outside of my mom's house.
And it's probably been about eight years
since I've been inside the house.
The nose has a memory I guess,
because just starting to smell it as I walk in
has a profound psychological effect on me.
Here, let me sweep up.
Yeah, the mouse doesn't really help.
Babies.
Alright, so this is the living room.
There's actually furniture under here.
There's a couch.
This smell is pretty hard to bare right now.
I just can't even describe it.
Walking through, it's like an obstacle course.
You cannot even go a step without stepping on something.
I take you to the grocery store,
where are you putting groceries?
Oh, dear god.
I don't know even what to say.
I know this isn't healthy.
There's several times where we can't reach her,
'cause she'll lose her phone.
Well no wonder she loses her phone, how could you find
anything in here?
Oh god.
I'm stepping in
(dog yapping) animal feces right now.
And there's bugs all over the floor.
Apparently my mom rescued some chickens
and let them live in here.
I'm embarrassed, I feel somewhat guilty
not doing anything sooner.
(dramatic music)
Here's a movie I did, poster. (laughs)
Randomly out here.
That's always nice.
She has to have these things and she won't let them go,
but she doesn't treat them with any respect.
It's very confusing.
Everything just loses value and gets destroyed.
We've tried to help her so many times,
and our efforts are sabotaged
or just not accepted.
This is the worst I've seen her live in.
I'm the one who has to pull up to this driveway
and worry
she's gonna be dead in this.
It's horrible.