[music playing]
My name is Shanna.
I can definitely handle dirt.
I don't have a problem with that.
[music playing]
WILL: My name is Will.
And Shanna is my sister-in-law.
When I walked in for the first time, it was like a shock.
Every nook, every cranny, is just filled with disgust.
It was a horror show.
There was an anonymous neighbor who looked over the fence
and saw the outside and wanted it
cleaned up and turned her in.
[music playing]
I'm Sean and Shanna is my sister I don't think anything
would honestly change, if it wasn't for the city
posting the thing on the door.
I'm Nola, Shanna's sister.
The citation was addressed to Shanna,
but she gave it to me to deal with.
I do not know how to deal with a situation of this magnitude.
[music playing]
SEAN: Shanna's been living dirty for a long time.
But the hoarding like, really kicked in when
she moved in with my mom.
It was like two hoarders in a pod.
SHANNA: It was already very cluttered.
SEAN: It was two people hoarding instead of one.
That's when the house started becoming
the disaster it is today.
SHANNA: The main problem was, she
did away with garbage service.
And the only problem with that is, what are you
going to do with the garbage?
SEAN: I've offered to bring over a U-Haul and do dump runs.
But she said she wanted to go through everything first.
I'll just put that over there.
And when I say everything, I mean every bag of garbage.
It ended up being a fight.
She didn't end up letting me help.
[music playing]
NOLA: I think that house very well
contributed to my mom's death.
Maybe she'd be alive today, if she hadn't been
living in that environment.
Shanna didn't react too good when my mom died.
Because her and my mom were close.
You know, losing somebody takes a lot out of a person.
I think it's hard because we lived together.
And our lives were entwined with one another.
I don't know, I just miss that.
Shanna has been abandoned and isolated, due to mom's death.
Shanna says she's OK.
I think it's affected her a lot.
SEAN: The conditions are bad.
Feces everywhere, garbage everywhere.
Smells horrible.
I think smelling a corpse would be easier than smelling that.
[music playing]
I'm Matt Paxton.
I'm an extreme cleaning specialist.
So we've got Junk Guys on half of the yard.
We've got Bio guys on the other side of the yard.
Walk around.
Because, that's been a--
Well, I mean, it's not-- a lot of this stuff
has never even been opened.
I'm Dr. Robin Zasio.
I'm a licensed clinical psychologist.
And I specialize in OCD and compulsive hoarding.
OK.
I guess let it go.
All right!
It's a little bit mangled here, but--
It's still perfectly good.
I could still eat it.
This has never been opened.
SHANNA: It might be a little bit moldy
because I don't have a freezer.
No I'm going to pick the mold off.
We're starting to hit her anxiety.
The hoarder in her is coming out.
Just, some of the stuff I just got from the food bank.
Some of it is expired.
Yes, most of it probably is.
Shanna, the problem is, is it's not good, usable food.
Just because you got it two weeks ago
doesn't mean that it's good.
Well, it's never-- some of it's never been opened.
ROBIN ZASIO: But the problem is, it's all on the outside
of the container.
So when you pick it up, you're handling it.
And then you touch other things and then it cross contaminates.
We started with a biohazard crew.
No, I understand that.
99% of the time, the biohazard crew comes on the final day
when we've cleaned up.
OK.
OK?
This is the first time in "Hoarder" history,
I've ever suited up.
No matter how many times we try to explain to her
there are contaminants in the air,
there's cross contamination going on,
the outside of the cans are touching
fecal matter, urine, black mold, it's not safe,
she's not getting it.
I'm not going to bring in those salad blends
in, in a container, never been opened, to waste it.
There's fecal matter all over this house.
I would not eat a salad that had poop on it.
Well, I'm still--
I'm still hell bent.
[music playing]
ROBIN ZASIO: You know, the past few days
have been really intense, very emotional, very difficult.
All the processing in the world is not helping her.
What seems to have happened is, is in living with mom,
is as mom's functioning started to decline,
as the house started to decline, she rolled with the changes
and she didn't question it.
This is, unfortunately, the perfect storm.
I've made a professional opinion that she's
not capable of living alone.
Not because she is a compulsive hoarder.
It's because cognitively, she can't live alone.
We've got to figure out a plan B.
[music playing]
I think we've determined that this
isn't going to work anymore.
Nola has agreed that you can stay at her house
for a short period of time, until we
can get some resources.
And I'm going to turn it over to your therapist,
to continue the process once I'm gone.
SHANNA: I thought I'd be coming back to live.
And I-- and I won't be.
I think we all have hunches.
How bad is it?
Have to strip everything down to the studs.
MATT PAXTON: Everything down?
Everything down.
Nothing is salvageable.
MATT PAXTON: How much you think it would cost?
Money wise?
About $150,000.
MATT PAXTON: If we just bulldozed
it and build a new home?
You could build this home for about $145,000.
Brand new home--
MATT PAXTON: Would be less?
Less than trying to save this.
[music playing]
ROBIN ZASIO: You're going to be staying with Nola.
We've connected with the county social services.
We were able to get support from her therapist, who is going
to look into transitional housing
and assured us that she would not be homeless.
MATT PAXTON: You're an awesome lady.
You need to be in a place that's going
to help you with your needs.
Obviously the house is uninhabitable.
The family is going to focus on getting the house sold as is,
so they can maximize any assets that they have.
And that money will go towards keeping
Shanna in a proper home.
And this family can go back to actually living with you
and celebrating being a family, and not just taking care.
Mhm.
I thank you for just letting us come in here and clean.
And getting you out of here.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
And we love you.
Yes we do.
Love you too.
Very much.
It's definitely a happier ending than I was expecting.
My sister's going to get some help.
And it brought our family closer together.
Because we were pretty distant for a long time.
MATT PAXTON: There we go!
Love you.
I love you too.
Oh!