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The foreclosure crisis that affected the entire nation during the economic downturn of 2007-2009 created another crisis: an urban landscape filled with vacant and abandoned properties. While residential properties were empty because of foreclosures, commercial properties were abandoned because of the economic struggles of business owners. This, of course, raised the risk of vacant building fires.

Abandoned and blighted properties are a difficult reality for countless communities. If these problem properties are not dealt with quickly, they can become a perfect environment for criminal behavior, health risks, nuisance animals and pests, and fire.

Everyone knows that abandoned properties are an eyesore, but they can be much worse than that. There is a difference between aesthetic and safety concerns when it comes to abandoned properties.

Substandard housing is a growing issue. It’s estimated that 330 million urban households worldwide live in substandard housing. In the United States alone there are about six million homes and apartment buildings listed as substandard, and the problem isn’t going away any time soon.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, hoarding is a disorder in which someone has extreme difficulty discarding items that others may sometimes view as valueless. This disorder leads to extreme clutter and disrupts their ability to function in their living and workspace. Hoarding is not simply being messy or collecting something. Hoarding is an extreme accumulation of a variety of materials.