Elderly Woman Forced to Sleep in Stairwell Amid Apartment Clutter

An elderly woman in Yekaterinburg has been unable to enter her apartment, which is piled with garbage, for the third day in a row and is forced to stay on the stairwell. Neighbors complain about unsanitary conditions and insects.

Mar 3, 2026

An elderly woman is compelled to stay on the stairwell landing because the entrance to her apartment is barricaded with belongings.
Source:
reader E1.RU

Residents of a building on Otto Schmidta Street in Yekaterinburg report an elderly neighbor who has been sleeping and eating in the stairwell for the third day in a row. The reason is that the entrance to her own apartment is completely blocked by clutter.

Building management services occasionally conduct cleanups to remove accumulated items from common areas in the residence.
Source:
Artem Matyukhin / E1.RU

One local resident described the situation: «No one knows anything about her relatives. The stench is awful, and cockroaches are running all over the building. She can»t go home because everything is in garbage.«

Heaps of discarded items are visible from outside the structure, seen through a window.
Source:
Artem Matyukhin / E1.RU

The pensioner«s tendency to collect unnecessary things has been noted for a long time. Back in 2019, accumulated garbage had to be removed using freight transport.

Another neighbor added: «Yesterday was a horror, garbage spilled out of her apartment, and she couldn»t get in. In the end, a neighbor from the lower floor helped her get in. He pushed the door, and more garbage spilled out. The old woman has some relative who takes care of her, but she doesn«t clean up: she drives her to hospitals and takes her shopping. She insults children, called my son a brat. In the stairwell, there are many dead cockroaches.»

The management company «UZHS-Service» stated that they are aware of the problem, but their ability to influence the situation is limited. Representatives of the management company advised residents to collectively appeal to the prosecutor«s office.

«She has been living like this for a long time, she periodically receives orders, including from the prosecutor»s office. She takes out all the things, then, apparently, brings them back or delivers new ones there. How can the grandmother be evicted? This should be handled by the prosecutor and police. We can issue orders that she is cluttering common areas. However, it is very difficult to prove that the cockroaches are coming specifically from her apartment,« explained the company.

Earlier in Yekaterinburg, a similar case was recorded: residents of one of the buildings were without gas for more than a week because a pensioner refused to let specialists into her apartment, also filled with clutter.