Homeless and hoarding in LA: The special struggles and anxieties of unhoused people

LOS ANGELES — In his dim motel room, flies and dust swirled through a slanted blade of sunlight. A shoulder-high heap of boxes, trash bags, electronics and clothes prevented him from opening the curtains.

Mario Blanco, 53, sat at the edge of his bed with his dog, Leo the Lion, staring at the items he's been hoarding in his room for a year. Empty cups, medication bottles, stacks of paper, old photos, McDonald's bags, scattered toiletries, dog food cans, a dirty fan.

Blanco was embarrassed by the scene.

"I've been throwing away things little by little," he said.

But he was more concerned about what was next.

Blanco and other homeless people sheltering at the Chateau Inn & Suites in Downey had to leave by the end of the day because a motel voucher program that funded their stay had ended. Caseworkers said they had shelter space or rooms at other motels waiting for them.

But for many homeless people, transitioning from place to place is often not simple, and it is even more disruptive and agonizing for those with hoarding disorders, who risk losing all the items they have come to cherish.

Blanco's eviction from the Chateau Inn would send him on an odyssey to find a new place to live and to get at least some of his possessions back.

"I'm upset," he said. "Moving