The true costs of a hoarding case to communities is not well appreciated. Partly, this is because hoarding cases have typically been dealt with on a piecemeal basis, with each agency carving out its own area of responsibility, with no one seeing the "big picture" for a final tally. ALso, often it is animal control or animal shelters who lead the investigation and interventions, and these agencies have typically operated on the periphery of municipal government. When the true cost is calculated, the numbers can be astounding, and make a good case for the merits of more effective prevention. HARC has tabulated costs for several representative cases:

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