By URIAH KISER
DALE CITY, Va. — When fire and HAZMAT crews were called to Tracy Martinez’s childhood home Friday night, she thought the home was vacant.
Martinez says a man was living in the home illegally when fire and rescue crews rushed to the scene Friday, after the man disturbed some stored chemicals meant for use in the home’s backyard swimming pool. Once disturbed, they began to bubble causing a chemical reaction and his nose to burn.
Not true, said Martinez.
“This man has been squatting at our home since December,” said Martinez. “The house is not in foreclosure.”
He’s been squatting, or living in the home without permission, since December, she says. The man was a roommate of another man who two years ago signed a lease with Martinez’s parents – who still own the home and were concerned when the found out what happened on Friday night. The leaser moved out in December on good terms, but the roommate must have stayed behind, said Martinez.
“I was driving by the house last week and I saw cars in the driveway and thought ‘they shouldn’t be there,’ so now we contacted legal help us get him removed from the house,” said Martinez. “That was the home I grew up in, and I have a lot of great childhood memories in the home. But as the years have gone by and things like this happen, those fond memories have become faded.”
The man refused treatment and didn’t suffer serious injuries.
While the landlords in this case are working to remove the alleged squatter, landlords who don’t visit their properties often have posed a problem in Dale City.
“It’s absentee landlords, with no one looking to make sure the tenants are well behaved, that’s a problem,” said Neabsco Action Alliance spokeswoman Connie Moser. “We have a rental across the street. They continually park their cars blocking the sidewalk and have a dog that barks 24/7. The owner lives away and has a property management company deal with the lease.”
The alliance, along with much of Moser’s community work, focuses on redeveloping Dale City into a community of homeowners who take pride in their houses.
“When I moved…it was a family oriented neighborhood with neat lawns and well tended homes. I spend a huge amount of time trying to keep up in a neighborhood where the people who do care are aging and fast falling into a state of inability to keep up basic property maintenance,” said Moser.
