D.C. landlord seeks court help after months-long occupation of basement unit

WASHINGTON — A Washington, D.C., property owner says strangers have occupied a basement unit in her three-unit Columbia Heights building for about eight months, turning it into what she called a “drug haven” while a legal battle plays out in D.C. Superior Court, she told Fox News Digital.

Tatyana Day Velasquez provided photos and video to Fox News Digital that she said show needles, drug paraphernalia, Narcan, fentanyl test strips, a machete and firearms. Velasquez told Fox News Digital the occupants do not pay rent and that three other tenants fled the building amid safety concerns, according to court documents.

Court filings show Velasquez discovered the occupants after a prior tenant said he had moved out. The lease cited in the documents bars unauthorized occupants, subletting and drug-related criminal activity. A Metropolitan Police Department report dated June 26 said one occupant had “established residency” by living with a tenant on the lease, and officers treated the matter as a landlord-tenant dispute, making no arrests, the report said.

D.C. law generally requires property owners to seek relief in D.C. Superior Court rather than removing occupants themselves, and the Office of the Tenant Advocate says occupants must be given an opportunity to challenge owners’ claims in court before an eviction can proceed, the office told Fox News Digital. The U.S. Marshals carry out court-ordered evictions.

Velasquez called the situation “predatory” and said she has been assaulted while confronting the occupants, remarks she made to Fox News Digital. John Gibbs, director of the Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that expedited removal procedures, stronger penalties and faster courts could reduce squatting. Fox News Digital said it contacted D.C. City Council members and committees; the mayor’s office declined to comment.

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