WASHINGTON, D.C.— FIRST ON FOX: As Washington, D.C., grapples with a persistent squatting problem, one resident in the nation's capital is speaking out about how unwelcome tenants have turned her life upside down, terrorizing her neighborhood while the city stands by and does nothing."I lived in several countries, including Third World countries, but it seems to me that I’m living in a Fourth World country in D.C.," Tatyana Day Velasquez, who owns a small three-unit building in Columbia Heights, told Fox News Digital."I’ve never seen something like it.
There’s no accountability for what goes on.Everybody just throws the ball to each other, and there’s no help.
So how can somebody resolve a problem like mine if you don’t get help?"For a tumultuous eight months, Velasquez said her property's basement apartment has been overrun by strangers who refuse to leave and live rent-free with no consequences in sight.HOMEOWNERS TERRORIZED BY PRO SQUATTERS TURNING DREAMS INTO NIGHTMARES IN PALM-LINED PARADISE, EXPERTS SAYTatyana Day Velasquez told Fox News Digital that squatters took over the basement apartment of her Washington, D.C., property, leading to a months-long legal battle.(Fox News Digital/Kiera McDonald ; Obtained by Fox News Digital)Hidden behind a makeshift barricade built with trash cans and bricks, Velasquez said the apartment has transformed into a "drug haven," with unfamiliar faces pouring in and out in the night, constant fights breaking out, and a chemical odor seeping through the building.
Photos and videos provided by Velasquez show a disheveled apartment littered with needles and drug pipes, as well as Narcan, fentanyl test strips, a machete and guns."They don't pay rent," she said."I mean they're making money by drug dealing, obviously."The dispute has since landed in D.C.
Superior Court, where Velasquez is fighting to reclaim the basement apartment, arguing the courts are "overfilled with situations like mine."Court documents show that V...