A N.J. newspaper, Feb. 2006
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Officials said they were not prepared for what they found inside
853
Hamilton St., where two siblings in their early 60s had lived for
decades
until the house became so unsafe and unsanitary they had to be
evicted.

There were thousands of pounds of garbage, with bags piled 7 feet
high in
some parts of the house. There was human waste, animal waste and
cats --
nearly 20 of them -- and at least two guns.


These were the conditions Barbara and John D. had been living in
for
years, until health officials charged the siblings with a string of
property maintenance and uniform construction code violations. They
were
evicted Monday.
"We removed about 3,000 pounds of obvious garbage that we needed just
to
be able to traverse 60 percent of the house," said Rick P., the
city's health officer, who called the dwelling "unfit for human
habitation."
"There are rooms that we cannot get into at this point," he said.
"I don't think there was a component of the property maintenance code
that
was not violated," said P., who also is a Union County freeholder.
On Monday, members of the health, public works and police departments,
as
well as the Union County Sheriff's Office and medical personnel went
to
the house, a single-family, three-story dwelling.
The D.s were taken to Trinitas Hospital in Elizabeth, P. said.
Hospital officials yesterday would not confirm or deny the siblings
were
there.
Neighbors saw sheriff's officers and workers in white biohazard suits
cart
away two truckloads of garbage bags, and gallon jugs of urine.


Yesterday, the doors were covered with plywood, stapled with red
notices.
The side yard was strewn with rags, plastic bags, assorted refuse and
a
single hard-cover book titled "The Theory of the Leisure Class."
The Hamilton Street house had been a problem property for years, P.
said.
Monday's action resumed legal action the city took in 2001, when
officials
took the pair to municipal court and then Superior Court. The city
cleared
standing water and debris and removed some foliage from the property.

Residents' complaints resumed last summer, P. said.
It wasn't always that way, neighbors said.
The D. family first moved into the house in 1971, city officials
said.
Before they moved in, "it was beautiful," neighbor Stephanie W.
said. The house had a mahogany staircase, a green yard and beds of
roses,
she said.
After their parents died in the late 1980s, the siblings became near
recluses, emerging from the house only at night for trips to the
grocery
store, neighbor Matt P. said. "You'd see them once in a blue moon,"
he said.
Neighbor Marcus N. said he had seen Barbara D. pushing a
supermarket cart around Rahway in recent months, picking up garbage
and
abandoned goods from the sidewalk. Their garage was filled with goods
salvaged from Dumpsters and garbage cans, he said.
Officials contacted the D's before the eviction, and animal rescue
workers removed some of the cats in advance, said Delia C., a member
of Cranford-based Best Friend Dog and Animal Adoption. C. met
Saturday with Barbara D., and the woman seemed sad to relinquish her
animals, she said.


"She was sincerely concerned about what would happen to them once
they
were evicted," C. said. The D. gave each cat a name, dubbing
the three taken by the rescue group Peanut, Cody and Roger.
The cats appeared to be in good shape, and Rahway health officials are
continuing to check the house to make sure none remain.
Officers had to take precautions before they arrived shortly before 10
a.m. Monday, said Lester S., chief warrant officer for the Union
County Sheriff's Office, which handles evictions.

A sheriff's officer contacted John D. in advance and established a
rapport with him. The officers knew he had weapons and had formerly
worked
at a trap-and-skeet range. With that in mind, about a dozen officers
responded.
Two weapons were recovered, one of them resembling a Civil War rifle,
along with gunpowder, said Union County Sheriff Ralph F. There
could be more weapons in the house, he said.
Barbara D. exited first. The encounter with D. apparently was
peaceful but difficult, because of the volume of refuse, S. said. He
became trapped in a second-floor bathroom when debris blocked the
door.
There was a concern for the officers' safety, F. said. "My guys
told me they climbed over garbage and found out later on that they
climbed
over the dining room table," he said.
For now, the dwelling's fate is unclear, pending further court action,
though P. said the house probably will have to be demolished.
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Discardophobia? (@_@)