Long Island Rep. George Santos' sister has settled a suit seeking her eviction from an apartment in Elmhurst, Queens over more than a year of unpaid rent.
She agreed to pay her former landlord $1,000 a month through October 2024 to cover what she owed, for a total of $19,525, according to a settlement agreement released Friday.
Tiffany Lee Devolder Santos vacated the apartment in mid-January. By that time, she owed $41,050, according to the settlement.
While she received more than $30,000 in emergency rental assistance through the state’s COVID-era ERAP program, defraying what she owed, she hadn’t made a single rent payment since March 2020, housing court records show.
While allegedly withholding monthly rent payments of $2,050 between March 2020 and December 2022, Tiffany Santos donated nearly $30,000 to her brother’s campaign and other Republican causes, federal records show.
Her political giving – while simultaneously fighting eviction – only added to the questions surrounding her brother. George Santos, who has also faced eviction, was even registered to vote at his sister’s Elmhurst address between 2019 and 2020. The siblings reportedly lived together at the Queens Boulevard apartment as recently as this year.
The Daily Beast and the New York Post had previously reported on Tiffany Santos’ eviction case and political giving.
The Republican representative has come under the scrutiny of federal investigators for campaign finance irregularities and fabricating large swaths of his biography. Campaign records show Tiffany Santos played a role in his congressional bid.
She was listed as having “operational control” of Rise NY PAC, a political action committee that supported her brother’s campaign, according to state Board of Elections records. In federal campaign donation records, Tiffany Santos listed various professions, stating she was self-employed, retired, the president of the Rise NY PAC, and a creative director at a marketing agency.
A spokesperson for George Santos’ congressional office declined to comment on the housing court settlement.
The agreement was announced by Judge John Lansden in Queens housing court Friday morning, ahead of an expected hearing between the landlord and tenant. Tiffany Santos’ lawyer and an attorney for her landlord didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
Tiffany Santos has argued in legal filings she was being harassed by the landlord, who neglected the apartment.
Records with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development show there were seven open violations for her apartment for missing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, a broken self-closing door, and chipped plaster dating back to 2021.
While George Santos claimed on the campaign trail to be a landlord frustrated by tenants withholding rent, he faced eviction at least three times, housing court records show.
Jake Offenhartz contributed reporting.
This story has been updated with additional details about the settlement.
