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D.K. And Tree Podcast
How A DC Host Fought A Serial Squatter And Won
A simple short-term rental turned into a yearlong fight to reclaim a home. We walk you through the DC case that had everything: a guest who wouldn’t leave, utilities flipped, cameras tampered with, police visits, child services at the door, and finally an emergency ruling that declared she wasn’t a tenant. The story is gripping on its own, but it also reveals how serial squatters exploit gaps between Airbnb stays and landlord-tenant law, and why so many owners feel abandoned by a slow, confusing process.
We dig into the reporting: a history of evictions, unpaid balances, and liens tied to the same individual under different names. Then we put her counter-claims under the microscope—late payments, hardship, lost funds—and compare them with transaction gaps and court records. It’s a nuanced look at the difference between genuine financial struggle and a practiced pattern that leverages delay. You’ll hear how the community showed up to help the homeowner clear the property after the judge ruled, why the house looked like no one planned to leave, and what it’s like to see your investment and privacy pushed to the brink.
Most importantly, we turn this ordeal into practical guidance. If you host on Airbnb or manage rentals, you’ll get concrete steps to protect yourself: document every payment and message, avoid off-platform transactions, set clear terms distinguishing a booking from a tenancy, monitor utilities, and act fast with legal counsel at the first sign of trouble. We also talk policy—how states differ on trespass and eviction, why reforms are overdue, and how the system can defend both honest tenants and rightful owners without rewarding delay.
If this story hits close to home, tap follow, share it with a friend who hosts, and leave a review with your take on what laws should change next. Your feedback helps shape future conversations and keeps the pressure on for smarter protections.
All right, good evening. Good evening. Hope everybody's day is going well. Hey, I hope the holidays is uh really good for you. You know, we're getting close to Christmas, you know. Gotta get all those Christmas gifts out to the families, friends, or whoever you want to give gifts to. It's your boy Damon. I'm here with the DK and Tree Podcast. Boy, mm-mm mm mm mm. Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. And and I can speak from experience on this one. Be careful who you let into your house because it takes an act of Congress to get them out of your house. And there was a story here in DC that I um I came across of a squatter. And you know, I I'm gonna refer down go to Florida, you know, Sheriff Grady Judd down there. Um, that man, he was like, I don't understand why these telling these people they have to go to court and they have to do this. He was like, We arrest them for trespassing and destruction of property and conspiracy. He said, We arrest them down here in Florida. He said, I'm not understanding why y'all tell these people they have to go to court. I don't understand it either. Because again, if it's not their property and they're squatting on someone's property, that's not their property, they can't prove that that's this property, so they shouldn't be allowed to stay in there, and you shouldn't have to go to court to try to get somebody out of something that you own. I totally agree with them. But in this story's case, um, a situation happened in DC where this lady was trying to get this lady out of her house. She had she was renting a house as an Airbnb, and the lady moved in, and next thing you know, she wouldn't leave. She ain't paid the lady nothing. I think maybe she gave her maybe uh one some money, but then gave her nothing after that, and she stayed in the house for like almost 10 to 11 months. Also, this lady was taking lavish trips and all this posting this all on her social media page, and she just was like just took advantage of this lady. Yeah, it's just so crazy. You got to be careful uh who you let into your house. But again, I'm gonna go ahead and play the story that way. You all can hear it. And then there's a couple parts to this. I'm gonna be playing a couple parts. So here's the first part.
SPEAKER_04:Allowed her to hire a locksmith and break in. She gave them no documents, she gave them no court orders, she gave them no lease. She just came and said, I'm locked out. This is taking me somewhere where I'm not trying to be, I'm trying to stay on the right. But for somebody to just take and take and do and do, everybody has a breaking point.
SPEAKER_03:The homeowner was able to board up the home, but the guest was able to get back in. In addition to that, though, I was able to speak with the person the homeowner is accusing of squatting in her home. She stopped us as we were outside with uh doing the story and invited us in. I went back to the property today and saw child services show up because Shadijah brought her daughter into the home while there was no power or electricity inside. Police also showed up because the homeowner's truck went missing after Shadijah got back in the house. And when Shadija cracked the door open to get a package, I saw what appears to be a candles and essential oils business inside. This is unbelievable. That led to a virtual emergency hearing today. In court, it was revealed that Shadijah tried to push Roshane off a ladder, took the utilities out of the homeowner's name and put it in her daughter's name, tampered with cameras, requested that Roshain pay her back for the food lost when the power was turned off. Oh, and she asked a judge if she could question Roshayne as a hostile witness. I was with Roshane as she attended the hearing from her car outside the home. The outcome would be hard.
SPEAKER_04:I would hope tonight can help her, but you can't do it in my expense. I don't have it. The police allowed her to hire a locksmith and so that's the first part of this story.
D.K:And when I tell you, this is it's ridiculous. So I allowed you to come into my home, and I'm written as an Airbnb. You don't, and you stay there, and you say we had an agreement in place, and it was never said agreement that was in place. So now you're taking my kindness for weakness, you take it trying to take advantage of me or whatever. And not only are you doing that, but you're damaging my home at the same time. So and it it just it's it's it's ridiculous. It's it makes no sense. And like I said, you just got to be careful of who you put in your house. Because once once they get in there, they get in there. And it's it's it's ridiculous. Now, the second one I'm gonna share is um this lady's history of where she's been around and how she just doesn't pay rent, she doesn't do anything of the sort. She just she just goes in and she plays on you, and she's like, I'm gonna stay here, and there's nothing you can do about it. So here's the second.
SPEAKER_01:New tonight, another twist in a bizarre Airbnb battle. Seven News has exclusively told you about a homeowner in Northeast DC who says a squatter has taken over her short-term rental. But that alleged squatter claims she's a tenant with rights. All new at six o'clock. Our Felicia Ashley is learning this isn't the first time the so-called unwanted guest has refused to leave a property.
SPEAKER_03:I found court records revealing that Romero stayed in multiple properties in and around DC, rent-free for months while they went through the eviction process. Court records show at your previous apartment, you're also getting evicted for not paying rent.
SPEAKER_05:And so that wasn't for that place. It was for a previous place where something happened during COVID when everyone was not receiving payment. I'm an entrepreneur and I also have a nonprofit.
SPEAKER_03:Court records show Shadija Romero faced eviction from two other DC properties before booking Roshane Douglas's Airbnb nearly a year ago. I reviewed the records with real estate attorney Rich Bianco.
SPEAKER_00:Scrolling down the docket here, she knows what she's doing. So this isn't the first rodeo.
SPEAKER_03:Court records show that in October 2021, she had a year lease at the Jamison at Dakota apartments. Those owners also filed a suit against Romero. It shows she stayed months past the end of her lease and did not pay anything between May 2022 and January 2023. She also signed a legal agreement to pay the Jameson$35,000 in back rent, but she did not follow through with that agreement. She was officially evicted eight months after she stopped paying.
SPEAKER_05:I did not go to court for eviction for A Venoma.
SPEAKER_03:Five days after she was evicted from the Jamison records show she moved into Avonoma. She paid one month's rent and owes them nearly$50,000. The property tried to evict her multiple times, but there was a fire, which I confirmed with DC Fire and DMS started in her unit while she was there. A Venoma is the one showing that you were in the process of being evicted for paying one month's rent when you were there for 13.
SPEAKER_05:So no, that would not be accurate.
SPEAKER_03:Again, court documents show Romero filed a motion to delay the eviction, this time citing the fire and saying insurance needed to see the damage in the unit. She booked the Airbnb as she was getting evicted from that property. I found multiple tenant and landlord cases against her in and around DC when she went by a different name at the time. In addition to that, I saw at least a dozen liens against her, as well as a case claiming that she paid for a down payment for a vehicle and made no other payments after that. Now, since these discoveries, Romero has said that she is not speaking to us anymore. New tonight.
D.K:How okay. Why don't somebody put a lien against her business? You know, that get your money back. You know, it makes no sense that she's a professional, she keeps doing this, she keeps doing this, she keeps doing this, and nothing is done. It's crazy, it's crazy. But hey, you know, I got I got another part to this. I definitely have another part to this. So I'm gonna bring this one in so you can hear this one because now she's accusing the property owner of harassing her. So let's go to this one.
SPEAKER_05:Where are you going to go next? I'm moving out of the property. I don't need to tell them where I'm moving.
SPEAKER_03:I asked that. I asked that in the sense of if you did have somewhere to go with all this around. You mentioned she was harassing you and this just started.
SPEAKER_05:So it's not like the harassment has not been for months. So when you're saying harassment and you're saying why haven't I leaved prior, it seems as if this is an issue that has been going on for months, which it has not. This has only been like a two-week, this has been like a uh now it's been a month, a month process. So it hasn't been some process that has been going on for months. It has not gone on for months, it has not. It's only been going on now for a month, literally a month.
SPEAKER_03:So you're saying just November or just December?
SPEAKER_05:The end of October is when the stuff started. The harassment started November.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_05:So the harassment didn't start until uh mid-November. So the harassment, the sign, the cutting the power off, that was November. Well, the power was cut off in October um first, but then they turned the power back on, but then they turned it back off in November. How are you going to okay?
D.K:Cut the power off, cut the power back on, then cut the power off. Now, needless to say, in here that she put one of them utilities in her daughter's name and took it out of the property owner's name. Because again, she knows how to manipulate the system, she knows how to work the system, and she knows what she's doing. She knows nothing can happen to her for months. So I'm gonna ride this out for months, and I'm just stay here until I know I can't stay here anymore. Now, I think it was today it came down that um judge ordered the emergency eviction. Now, let me tell you how much your community is behind you with this. The community came and helped the homeowner evict her stuff out that house. And you know, the news people they're gangster. Let me tell you, they're gangster. They live stream this lady's stuff getting put out of there, and like I said, they're gangster. So I'm gonna play this one next, and then we will go and you can listen to that, and then like I said, we'll go from there all the way up.
SPEAKER_03:Good afternoon, Felicia Ash with ABC7. I'm sure many of you have seen the update where earlier today the judge ordered that the homeowners of the property you've been discussing in Northeast DC with the AC Squatter that the Airbnb guest has to leave. The homeowners are now in the home. This is the first time they've been able to enter the home. We are inside of the home with them as they are starting the cleanup and eviction process. They did not have to give Shadija Romero any type of notice because the judge ordered that she is not a tenant and therefore has no tenant rights. You can see uh we also had some community members come to help the homeowners clear out her stuff, and that is what is happening now. They have started clearing out the home and putting their unwanted guest out. The home is quite packed. There's no light on in here, so it's a little dark, but there is or appears to be some heat on. You can see a lot of candles and oils on the floor. The homeowner has said, just looking at this and the whole situation all around is sad. Um, but she says this is just a moment she had to do because she needs to get her life back in order and on track. One thing the homeowner said is that it does not look as if she had any plans of ever leaving. It is quite lived in. If you remember, the order that the judge upheld was the agreement Miss Romero signed to be out of the home by November 15th. Obviously, we know we're nearly a month after that. And it doesn't appear to have been any signs of clearing out the home.
D.K:Tell me so she had no intentions of leaving the home at all. None. She had no intentions on leaving the home. I mean, if you would have saw she had all kinds of stuff in there, candles, she had plants, she had stuff all around there. And for the simple fact that she has a child and she's uh imprinting this on her child to scam. And you understand and you wonder why some of our youth out here do what they do. It's because they see what their parents do, they scam. So if they can do it, then it must be okay for me to do it, and I can scam. And she's been scamming, and she's been doing it for years. She knows what she's doing, and it makes no sense. It it makes no sense, and it's really, really, really, really sad. But I I got another part to this because the grand finale is coming soon, so of course, we got to get the their point of view. So I'm gonna play this one and get their point of view of uh how they look at the whole situation, your actual squad are tell me how it got to this point.
SPEAKER_05:Um, in February of this year, uh I moved into the unit initially through an Airbnb. Um, there was a month agreement which I paid for um on the Airbnb platform um due to a fire, um, which um I then asked the owner um if we could extend the time frame in the home. Um we came to an agreement um that I could do that. She sent me monthly invoices, um, which I paid those monthly invoices in order to stay in the unit. Um I had a month where um I had a financial loss of over like$17,000.
SPEAKER_03:Um is that due to work or personal?
SPEAKER_05:Uh it's a personal um issue. Um I helped someone in the past and it came back to bite me because I am everyone could see you can search me because I'm not hiding from anyone. Um, so they were able to find me and then I was held liable for something I helped someone do. So that put me in a financial strength, but either way, I paid. Um, I still made the payment. I made the payment late um because I had the issue. I'm sorry, I'm emotional. I didn't mean to get emotional. I'm trying to speak clearly. Um the emotional, the um financial thing was, like I said, almost$17,000. So it sent me into a life depression. Um, prior to me going out of the country, um, well, actually, I was gonna make a payment on the 15th of October. Um, on the 15th of October, my daughter's car, um, her steering wheel locked um while she was driving. And um, I had to get to her because she was on the help of the roadway and the issue couldn't, I needed to make sure that she was safe and get her target um resolved. Um that took me past the hours of like bank hours. So I didn't make my payment on that day because the bank had closed. I had this the emergency situation with my daughter. Um, the next day I went to retrieve the funds for the payment um because I was going out of the country and I wanted it, you know, taken care of while I was gone. Um, but it wasn't. Um the money was lost. I didn't, I wasn't aware of that while I was gone. Um, I came back and uh so the 15th was the day the payment was due. 16th, I went out of the country. Um, when I went out of the country because I had just had that big financial loss, I turned all of my phones off because I was trying to like decompress from you know what I had been experiencing. And um I didn't turn my phones back on until later that Monday when I came into the property on that Monday. So that's like maybe six days after the rent was due, um, the electricity to the home had been cut off. Um, and at that point, that's when I was made aware that the payment had not been made. Um, I then called Pepco to figure out at first I thought maybe it was uh a power outage. So first I called Pepco, found out it wasn't a power outage, and that the owners had turned off the the the um, they had turned off the electricity. So then the electricity was turned on because then so that we could have power. Um they turned the power back off um because they said I had no right to turn the power on. I went to the courthouse to that following day to file an emergency hearing because they had turned the power off and I didn't want them to be able to turn the power off again. Um, no point prior to this did I state anything about like tenant rights. Was I worried about anything about tenant rights because up until that point everything was being paid um every month, even if it was paid two days late, it was paid. Um after that, um we've now progressed to the point where they come to the home almost every other day. Um, I called the police. The police informed them that I was a resident or um uh a tenant here. Um she said that we didn't have a lease, which we do not have a At least in place, but we did have an agreement for me to stay at the property beyond the initial Airbnb um timeframe. So she's been back to the property almost every day. Um they installed signs. The police told me that I could take down the signs because they were not legal signs issued by the court. They were signs that she had just had um made in an attempt to try to harass me more and force me out of the property sooner. Um I told them that I could not be out of the property within um a short period of time because I had just had that financial issue. Um, but that I would go through this process that EDC has to assist people who have had financial issues in order to pay the rent, um, informed that I would go through that and that while they were going through the legal process to while they initiated the legal process because they had never initiated the legal process before to like have me moved from the property, that I would ensure that everything was paid. Um and then it's just been a continuance of uh them, uh, the police and you coming to the home. Um, and the power is currently off. So yes.
SPEAKER_03:Um, well, thank you for sharing your side, Wayne. Um, I heard you mention the tragedies of financial loss. Um, I do know also when I went through the court records, the messages between you two, the Airbnb reservation, things like that. Um, I heard you say there were payments, but transaction-wise, there was nothing for nearly nine, ten months, July.
D.K:I tell you, boy. When someone wants to scam you, and they are great at what they do, they can scam you. And everything that I just listened through that whole deal, she said nothing of the sort. You getting the hell over, and that's what it is. You getting over, and you're not expecting anyone to do anything about it. And she probably thought that the homeowner was not going to uh was just gonna give up, or whatever. This is my property, or whatever. But in the final clip, after she got put out, now she talks, and I was like, Oh, now you want to talk. Okay, so now she talks, and just just listen to the Tom Foodery here.
SPEAKER_05:I have had people reaching out to the stores that my products in, I've had people reaching out to the schools that I have mentored girls in, I've had people reaching out to organizations that I've done free events for. Mind you, about 98 to 99 percent of the work that I have done has been from me. Even when I've needed help, I've helped because I've always thought it's somebody out here worse than me. Today in court, it was proven or it was admitted that the false narrative that I have been staying at a place since February and that someone has been trying to get me out since March, it was untrue. It was not true. The false, the narrative that I had been staying at a place since February and had not made a payment since March, that was also untrue. It was admitted on record that payments had been received up until the end of September. Now there is a payment in question. Somehow that payment wasn't received. Uh, I don't know, but um, there's a payment that there's only one payment in question. So the narrative that I have been staying at a place since March and not making any payments, it was untrue. Um documentation was provided um that showed that I did not ask, I did not initiate um the switching from Airbnb to direct payments to the owner and some scheme to circumvent a process that that wasn't the case. Those direct payments were sent, I mean, those direct links were sent willingly, not only willingly, but they were initiated by the other party. Although it was decided that I don't have tenant rights, those things were untrue. And to get on the news to say things that are untrue shows a lot about a person's character and shows that they had malicious intent because they knew it would go off like this. And the thing about the truth is that the truth doesn't always, it's not as it's not heard as loud as the lie is. So the damage that this has caused, irreparable. I'm gonna take some time away because as I said, this has been the hardest. Everything that I do with my business, I do it with love. Everything I do with my nonprofit, I do it with love. And I can't do either right now with the amount of pain that is in my heart, to those who waited to make their judgment, to get the facts that the shit just wasn't true. Thank you to the people who made their decision and left comments, the people who know me or have or have known me. Fuck y'all, and y'all wouldn't say it to my base. I wish, as I always wish, I hope you know love up close. And the thing about is when you know love up close, you move differently. You don't move to find things about somebody and break them down. You don't you don't do that. You don't make fake pages and fake numbers to arrest people. You don't do that when you move in with love and when you know love up close, and because I know love up close, I know I will be okay. I might not be okay in this moment, but I will be because I have some people who will make sure that when I'm too deep in the trenches, they pull me out.
SPEAKER_04:That's all I got.
D.K:That's all she got. Let me go back a little bit because there's something about she said she was displaced by a fire, right? Now, I one of the stories I I couldn't find it right away, but one of the stories said that the fire that was that made her displaced came from her apartment. Interesting, interesting. It wasn't someone else's, it was your apartment. That's very interesting. Now you get in. Now, again, I love hearing both sides of the stories, and she was tap dancing around everything. If you just listen to it, it was tap dance. She knew she was getting over. Now, in this last clip that I displayed, now you want to sit there and say everything was a lie. Oh, I'm not a resident. No, you're not a resident, you're in someone else's house. It was an Airbnb. You're not a resident. Okay, you said that a we had an agreement in place. Well, where's the agreement? Because generally, if someone's doing something, especially with Airbnb, that's contracts, you know, they do every stuff online. You can show that stuff. You said you made payments. Oh, if you made payments, you got Cash App, you got Zell, you got Apple Pay, you got all these, you got all these different methods of payments where you can show a payment history and say, Yeah, I've been paying. Look, look, this is all my money. This is who it's been going to. No type of proof. You just sitting up there saying, Now I'm the victim. I'm the victim. Or as uh the other people I said, gaslighting. That's exactly what she was doing, gaslighting. I just felt sorry for that homeowner because the simple fact that if you own a home, that is your prize possession, and you don't want nobody coming in there overtaking your house of something that you worked hard for, and then they stand in there living rent-free, not paying nothing. That's why I said you have to be careful of who you let live in your house. Me from learning from a hard lesson, ain't nobody ever coming to live in this house. Nobody. If you ain't here and have agreed to be here, you ain't coming in here at all. I'm not tolerating that at all. I've been through a situation like that, and you know it's horrible, and they fuck up your shit, and then you have to go back and replace or fix the damage, and then they just walk and um get away with just pure den. So you just have to go out there and you sue them civilly and whatever. It's not like they have the goddamn money to pay you back anyway. So, like I said, it ain't worth it. Like, look, if you down on your luck, you just down on your luck, you want to figure it out. But stepping across this threshold, nah, ain't happening. You can come visit, whatever. But when it's time for me to go to sleep, it's time for you to go, you out of here. So, but I just wanted to come on here and share that. Hey, listen, I want I definitely want to hear from y'all what your thoughts about this one because again, it's a problem all across the United States. And like I said, down in Florida, you know, down in Polk County, they don't tolerate that down there. They're arresting for trespassing. I honestly think that they should do that all across the United States. These people don't belong in these people's houses. Yeah, arrest the ass. You know, get them out of there. Why should someone have to go spend their hard-earned money and go through court and that the court it gets delayed or it gets continued or this person wasn't served, or this this long drawn-out process, and it takes 10, 11, almost a year to get something back that you paid for that you're still paying for your hard-armed property. That's ridiculous. And I always get on these lawmakers. That shit has to change. Hey, look, listen, badger your lawmakers about it. Because, again, they wouldn't like it if someone came in their house and they couldn't get them out of there. Then and then all of a sudden the law will change because it happened to them. But you see, it's not happening to them, so they don't care. Call your goddamn legislators, blow their damn phones up, blow their offices up, and say, hey, no, we are tired of this, we're tired of this, and it needs to change. Y'all need to do something about this. Y'all were so worried about y'all selves, but when are you gonna start worrying about the constituents that you serve? That's my two cents. I wish each and every last one of you a great, great day, a great, great evening, or a great, great morning. Whatever time you listen to this. I'm gonna go ahead and sign off. And again, if I don't get a chance to uh talk with y'all again, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.
