Hoarding is a very complex condition and can have a massive impact on the tenant, the property, the landlord as well as neighbours. It can be caused by various other complex factors – and tackling it needs a multi agency approach. It really does feel like it takes a whole village.

Winchester City Council has been working closely with its partners, Hoarding Disorders UK and Respect My Stuff to develop their approach, including running a successful pilot in 2022.

This is an opportunity to hear all about Winchester’s approach – what they did, how they approached it and the results they have achieved. Speakers will talk about the role they played and provide plenty of case studies.

10.30 Chair’s welcome and introduction

• • Damian Roche, Operations Director, HQN

10.40 Understanding hoarding – the meaning in the mess

• • Jo Cooke, Director, Hoarding Disorders UK CIC

11.10 Supporting people who hoard

• • Jack Moore, Managing Director, Respect My Stuff

11.40 An in-depth look at the support WCC provides to people with hoarding behaviours

• • Joanne Elliott, Winchester City Council

11.55 Hoarding Support Winchester City Council – The journey

• • Davina Emery, Tenancy and Sustainment Team Leader, Winchester City Council

12.10 Q&A

12.30 Closing remarks from the Chair

• • Damian Roche, Operations Director, HQN

Damian Roche, Operations Director, HQN

Damian began his career working in homelessness and housing advice before moving into housing management. He has over 20 years’ experience at senior level in a variety of housing organisations, including local authorities and housing associations. For much of the last decade, Damian was Director of Customer Experience at Accent, with responsibility for customer facing services, including tenancy and estates management, leasehold services and repairs and maintenance, to over 4700 homes.

Jo Cooke, Director, Hoarding Disorders UK CIC

Jo is a founding director of Hoarding Disorders UK https://hoardingdisordersuk.org/  which was established nearly ten years ago. Her father had hoarding behaviours and after he died, she set up Hoarding Disorders UK.  They are a company interest company and their mission is to educate, raise awareness of hoarding as a mental health disorder, provide advice and guidance, contribute to research as well as inspire the setting up of support groups and hoarding panels.

She is also the author of the book Understanding Hoarding which is fast becoming the “go to manual” for hoarders, their families and agencies that work with people exhibiting hoarding behaviours.

She has appeared in the Guardian newspaper, Cosmopolitan and other publications. She has also appeared a number of times on BBC Radio and BBC Sounds and on BBC Breakfast and ‘Inside Out’.  Jo was selected as a finalist for the Thames Valley Venus Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

Jo co-facilitates three hoarding support groups in Bracknell, on the telephone and on-line. She is currently writing another book “Overcoming Chronic Disorganisation”.

Davina Emery, Tenancy Sustainment Team Leader, Winchester City Council

Davina has worked for Winchester City Council for the last 4 years.

Prior to this, she worked in frontline Homelessness services and she is a qualified integrative therapist.

Jack Moore, Managing Director, Respect My Stuff Ltd

Jack Moore has over 15 years training and consultancy experience on hoarding and mental illness in the UK and ROI and is a regular speaker at conferences and on local and national media. He has researched world-wide best practice in understanding and tackling hoarding and developed a proven system of dealing with hoarding in a practical and timely manner. More recently he has developed a ‘dehoarding’ service with teams in the south of England and in NI. Jack has a housing background with a Degree in Housing. He is a Fellow of the CIH.

Joanne Elliott, Winchester City Council 

An experienced Housing Officer with over 14 years’ experience in Housing in various departments, working for both the local government and a local housing association. The last 7 years Jo has been part of Winchester City Councils Tenancy Team, managing all aspects of tenancy matters including serious and complex anti-social behaviour cases such as neighbour nuisance to domestic abuse, illegal drug use, harassment, and hate crime, including tenants with hoarding tendencies which has become a growing concern due to the difficulties in managing this. Jo has helped with the Hoarding Pilot Scheme, introducing tenants already known to the Council due to their Hoarding Behaviours, and were at serious risk of losing their homes, who have turned their lives around and are now managing their tenancies successfully.

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