Tom Donohue has walked the halls of 1828 Q Street SE dozens of times over the past few months.
The advisory neighborhood commissioner in D.C.’s Fairlawn neighborhood had heard concerns about people who didn’t live in the apartment building dousing the floors with gasoline and trying to set a fire, buying and selling drugs in the halls, and breaking into vacant units.
He said the property owners’ response to problems was sporadic, and that the issues persisted. So he collected 911 call logs, mobilized D.C. agencies and walked reporters through the building to raise the alarm.
Now, the city has taken legal action.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb recently sued 1828 Q Street SE Apartments LLC and property owners Marquis Bailey and Dion Robertson, saying the building has become beset by drug use and sales, and “overrun with squatters.”
In the lawsuit, Schwalb’s office said the conditions violate the city’s Nuisance Act, pointing to ongoing incident reports and arrests, and the owners’ alleged failure to secure the building to try to ward off illegal activity.
Court filings in the civil case cite some of the problems Donohue had tracked.
The attorney general’s office has asked the court for a preliminary injunction to force the owners to take adequate security measures, including securing vacant units, installing security cameras and lights, and hiring security personnel.
“It’s very rare that we use this litigation tool,” said Zenia Wilson Laws, special counsel for nuisance abatement for the attorney general’s office, who is handling the case. “We really like collaboration. We like to work with property owners.”
The building’s proximity to three schools also brings a sense of urgency, Donohue said.
The property’s owners, Bailey and Robertson, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. This month, the building went on sale for foreclosure.
Donohue, 47, who has been the ANC member for District 8A01 since January 2025, said that earlier this year, he noticed excessive trash piling up at the 36-unit residential building.
Donohue said the trash became something of a “calling card” for people to see that the property wasn’t being kept up.
Then came complaints of people breaking in and taking over vacant units, and of drug distribution and prostitution, he said.
Donohue visited the apartments repeatedly and contacted D.C. police about the issues.
In April, he said he invited one of the property owners, Bailey, and a company that provides special police officers — privately commissioned security personnel, usually for a specific property — to walk through the building. Donohue said he asked Bailey to hire a special police officer, but no officer was put in place.
Donohue also submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for 911 calls for service to the property.
Records showed that emergency dispatches grew from 38 calls in all of 2024, Donohue said, to 118 as of May of this year.
That month, a stabbing occurred inside the building lobby, and there was a fire — an incident detailed in a declaration Donohue submitted for the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, between May and August, D.C. police officers made multiple arrests for distribution of a controlled substance and possession. D.C. police executed a search warrant at the property and seized drugs, including cocaine.
Donohue officially turned to the attorney general’s office for help in May, he said, after outreach to the property owners hit a standstill.
Laws credited the ANC commissioner for bringing “a lot of attention” to the property within the government.
Laws said that in her role at the attorney general’s office, she engages with community members and collaborates with partners, such as police and city agencies, to help property owners address ongoing problems considered a nuisance under the law, including drug use and sales, illegal firearm storage, and prostitution.
Most owners welcome help, and issues tend to be resolved without litigation, she said.
The attorney general’s office issued a notice of unlawful activity to the owners of 1828 Q Street SE in early August, according to court filings. While one owner acknowledged the conditions and the other agreed to seek out armed security, both owners later stopped communicating with the city, the filings detail.
Meanwhile, the lawsuit says, “conditions have continued to deteriorate” at the property.
In September, Donohue received an email with the subject line “Please help.”
J.L., a pregnant mother of three, had moved into the 1828 Q Street SE apartment building through a housing voucher last November with her husband and children.
Right away, she said she noticed the outside and hallways were dirty, and someone was sleeping in the stairwell.
The front door didn’t lock and is now off its hinges, said the woman, who spoke on the condition that she be identified only by her first and last initials because she fears for her safety.
She said she voiced concerns to the property owners but either didn’t get a response or had one of the owners refer her to the other for assistance.
Most tenants have moved out in recent months, J.L. said, but her family had no choice but to stay on the lease.
J.L. said she has seen more than 10 people congregate in the hall to use drugs, and people have jiggled the family’s door, seemingly in an attempt to enter the unit.
One day, someone threatened her and her daughter, J.L. said. Her children are afraid to sleep alone.
“Every day I fear for my life,” J.L. said.
Donohue forwarded J.L.’s email to the attorney general’s office the same day. It has been submitted as an exhibit in the new lawsuit.
At the same time, Donohue said, he also wants to get help for the people using the building for shelter and who do not have a place to live.
Donohue coordinated to have the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health bring a mobile unit for weekly visits at nearby Triangle Park through October. The unit can provide referrals to agencies for mental health, housing services and other needs.
“We can’t just fix the building without trying … to address the unhoused,” Donohue said.
The city’s Department of Buildings — which had previously cited the property for housing code violations — is also working with Donohue and other District agencies to help address environmental and exterior concerns at the site, including the trash piling up around the building, an agency spokesperson said in a statement.
On Friday, Donohue was at the apartment building again, taking additional video of a wall that appeared to have been recently painted and capturing trash covering the stairs.
He plans to testify Tuesday at a court hearing on the attorney general’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
Meanwhile, J.L. said she got some good news at the end of the week: She received another housing voucher and can now start looking for a new home.
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