Squatter nightmare turns DC apartment building into 'drug haven' as legal battle drags on: 'There's no help'

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 Im 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.

"Ive never seen something like it. Theres no accountability for what goes on. Everybody just throws the ball to each other, and theres no help. So how can somebody resolve a problem like mine if you dont 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 SAY

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 Velasquez discovered other people had taken over her apartment after the previous tenant told her he moved out. Despite one of the men claiming the tenant gave him a key, the lease explicitly states unauthorized occupants, subletting and drug-related criminal activity are prohibited.

FURIOUS RESIDENTS CONFRONT HOMELESS HOUSING LEADERS AS POPULAR BEACH COMMUNITY HITS BREAKING POINT

Three separate tenants ultimately fled and vacated the building amid safety concerns, with one of the tenants telling Velasquez she "no longer feels safe enough to sleep here," according to court documents.

With the men never receiving approval and not paying rent, Velasquez argued this was enough reason to have them removed from the building.

"How could that be possible?" she said. "They are not guests. They're not invitees. This property is not a business. So, they are not implied consent to get inside, they are trespassers."

Police records tell a more complicated story. A June 26 Metropolitan Police Department report said one of the occupants had "established residency" by living with a tenant on the lease and therefore could not simply be removed, so police treated it as a landlord-tenant dispute and made no arrests.

Under D.C. law, property owners generally cannot remove occupants themselves and instead must go through D.C. Superior Court, a process that can take months in some cases. D.C.'s Office of the Tenant Advocate says occupants must be given an opportunity to challe