How do people live like this?

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FORT PIERCE — A Lakewood Park mother faces child neglect charges, after St. Lucie County Sheriff's detectives found what they determined were unlivable conditions inside her home.

The case started with DCF workers, who described a potential hoarding situation at Betty Perkins' home.

In the arrest report obtained by CBS12, Sheriff's detectives said Perkins' boy appeared clean, but they could "smell a strong stall odor" in the dwelling.

"The living conditions were extremely unsanitary and unfit for anyone," detectives wrote.

In the kitchen, the document indicates there were "stacked dirty dishes with roaches climbing all over them." The report says the eating area was "completely blocked with car parts, boxes and what appeared to be junk."

A bathroom was torn apart, "not fit for use," but used anyway, according to investigators.

Perkins posted bonded, and is out of jail.

The Sheriff's Office said the boy was placed with a family friend.

Monday when CBS12 visited the home, the man detectives identified as the boy's father, was hauling out trash.

He said he had broken his arm in a motorcycle crash, and since then, the condition of the house had gotten out of hand.

The man said the charges against Perkins are blown out of proportion.

Besides the mother, father and child, the arrest report says two other adults live in the home.

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