A few of us had a display booth set up this week at an annual conference in California which had a turnout of 230 city employees that deal with hoarding throughout the state. It never surprises me, how many of these city officials have stories of hoarders that they work with as well as the different approaches cities take in trying to deal with them.

Story after story was told at our booth and it was obvious that most of the city personnel that visited us, were just as kind and caring as we were. Not many city officials want to condemn a house and make a hoarder homeless, they just want them to be safe. Even after almost 18 years of helping hoarders and their loved ones, it still amazes me just how many people are affected by this disorder.

Our headquarters office in Rancho Cucamonga, responds to 20 hoarding homes each week. When you imagine these are the ones that are asking for help, how many must there be out there that still don't want it, or are too embarrassed to call? The numbers are high, probably higher than most people would ever imagine.

The latest studies performed show a staggering 5% of the population suffers from hoarding. That is 5 out of every 100 residences across America, but let's not stop there. We know hoarding affects not just the hoarder, but each and every family member, friend and sometimes the neighbors as well. It is rare to talk to a person about hoarding, without them knowing a hoarder themselves. The hoarding disorder in all honesty is affecting tens of millions of people in this country yet little has been done to find the underlying causes.

With hoarding becoming an official diagnosis in the 2013 DSM V, we are all hopeful that this will allow many new doors to open. This new diagnosis should allow for insurance coverage to treat the therapeutic side of the disorder, allow for more studies and tests to be done, and hopefully find answers years from now that we have all been searching for. We know that hoarding is not just and OCD problem. We know there are multiple reasons why people can begin hoarding. But how much of it is because a hoarders brain is truly different than non hoarders? Recent studies on a small scale have proven that they in fact are different. If their brains truly process information differently than others, how can we just expect them to think like us and just let everything go? With millions of people directly suffering from this disorder, and millions of others suffering right along side of them, I am hopeful that the nation is realizing this problem is not going away. We need to find answers on how to help the hoarders, their loved ones, the cities that deal with hoarding homes, management companies that have hoarding tenants, and those of us that truly want to help them live a safer life, filled with love, happiness and joy, not just "stuff".