The emotional disorder is known as compulsive hoarding. The items that get hoarded vary from person to person. Some people collect newspapers and magazines to the extent that they must mark a path through the piles in their homes. Others save every stray animal they see and become the “cat ladies” who make the news when their homes are finally raided. Some hoarders cannot throw away engines or car parts, and these parts show up in garages and in back yards.

Hoarders who suffer from a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder can usually be helped by a combination of medication and therapy. Many hoarders can hide their mental illness from everyone but those who actually live with them because they are often “normal” in every other way.

But sometimes, the symptoms of this mental illness play out in the person’s yard and neighborhood. And this is when it becomes a civic issue. And this is when things can grow tricky.

In a recent article, Spokesman-Review writer Megan Cooley reported on the city of Spokane Valley’s efforts to enforce laws that prohibit junk vehicles and the piling up of trash on residential property. In the past 10 months, code enforcement officials have addressed 772 complaints about trashy yards, junk cars and other nuisance violations.

Some of those cases were without merit. Some cases are pending. But nearly half of the violations were cleaned up. This is a good record and a good precedent for the new city. Trashy homes and yards decrease property values. They cause friction among neighbors that can escalate into violence. And newcomers, searching for areas in which to settle, will often judge the suitability of the neighborhood on appearance alone.

Well-enforced nuisance laws go a long way to ensure that homes and neighborhoods reflect shared civic values of cleanliness and safety. But as Bill Benish, Spokane County codes administrator, pointed out: “Sometimes you can change the appearance of a property, but you can’t change the behaviors of the people who live there.”

New York City officials grew so concerned over the problem of compulsive hoarding, especially among the elderly, that a unique task force was formed. Made up of psychologists, landlords, social workers and lawyers, the task force brainstormed ways to combine law enforcement tactics with mental health awareness.

According to a National Public Radio report on the effort, officials learned that simply demanding a hoarder to clean up – or else – doesn’t get the job done. This mental illness doesn’t disappear just because law enforcement and the courts order it to stop.

The challenge for city of Spokane Valley officials, and leaders in municipalities throughout the Inland Northwest, is to think outside the “fence” on this one. Adding a social worker or psychologist to a code-enforcement team might seem an extravagance in these budget-cutting days. But the core of this problem, for some of the offenders, goes much deeper than simply a lack of time and organization. The long-term solution must reflect this complexity, too.