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DC small landlord fights eight-month squatter standoff as city's eviction process stalls

9/5/2026

Washington D.C.'s property-rights enforcement framework has drawn fresh scrutiny after a Columbia Heights landlord spent eight months unable to recover her own basement apartment.

Tatyana Day Velasquez, who owns a three-unit building in the district, told Fox News Digital that unauthorized occupants had turned the unit into what she described as a "drug haven," while property taxes and court fees continued to mount.

Photos and videos Velasquez provided show the apartment littered with needles, drug pipes, Narcan, fentanyl test strips, a machete, and firearms.

Three paying tenants vacated the building amid safety concerns, with one stating she no longer felt safe enough to sleep there.

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