Saritha Komatireddy, a Republican challenger for attorney general, has criticized Letitia James over her oversight of New York's homeless shelter system, making the issue a focus of her campaign ahead of Election Day.
A Pattern of Fraud Cases Already in the Courts
Komatireddy's broadside came months after federal prosecutors unveiled allegations against former leaders of BHRAGS Home Care Corp., a nonprofit hired by New York City in 2022 to run an emergency migrant shelter and which went on to collect more than $200 million in city contracts, according to The Center Square. Prosecutors allege that former BHRAGS leaders Tirelus and Samedy embezzled and fraudulently obtained more than $1.3 million in taxpayer funds between August 2020 and January 2024, the outlet reported. The New York City Department of Investigation is assisting federal authorities with that probe, per the same report.
It is not the city's first shelter-corruption case to end in a courtroom. Victor Rivera, founder and former chief executive of the Bronx Parent Housing Network, a New York City shelter organization, admitted to accepting kickbacks from contractors and laundering the proceeds through entities he controlled, according to The New York Times. Rivera was later sentenced to more than two years in prison for accepting kickbacks while running the Bronx shelter organization, the Times reported separately.
Questions Over a Riverdale Contract and Family Ties
Komatireddy's campaign has also seized on a Riverdale shelter contract that drew scrutiny from the local press. The proposed award for a 130-bed shelter run by Westhab jumped to $355 million, up from a prior $195 million contract for the same facility, according to the Riverdale Press. The paper also reported that Westhab's assistant vice president of New York City shelter services, Valerie Smith, is the sister of Jocelyn Carter, a city homeless-services administrator. The city's social-services department told the Riverdale Press that Carter had no role in selecting Westhab and had recused herself from all matters involving the organization.
Komatireddy has criticized James's oversight of shelters, arguing that the attorney general should use her authority to challenge improper nonprofit transactions.
A Debate Over Medicaid-Fraud Enforcement
The dispute surfaced earlier this month during a debate in which Komatireddy and James also sparred over Medicaid-fraud enforcement; James defended her office's approach there too, saying it was concentrating on larger operators, including nursing-home companies, rather than pursuing individual providers in isolation, according to VIN News.
Komatireddy has vowed to crack down on shelters on her first day in office if elected, promising a system-wide audit to root out corruption and saying she would investigate every homeless shelter in New York starting immediately.
The Money Behind the Mission
Komatireddy has also zeroed in on the scale of spending, saying New York spends roughly $81,000 per homeless person — an amount she argues could instead be given directly to someone to keep them from being homeless the next day. That framing arrives as state auditors have tracked a sharp rise in spending tied to unsheltered homelessness: according to the New York State Comptroller's office, spending on those efforts more than tripled from $102 million in fiscal 2019 to $368 million in fiscal 2025, with an expected rise to $456 million in fiscal 2026 before planned spending dips to $442 million by fiscal 2029. At the peak of the migrant crisis, the city operated more than 50 emergency shelters while caring for over 70,000 migrants, refugees and other homeless individuals, per The Center Square's reporting.
New York is not alone in facing scrutiny over how homelessness dollars are spent. In the Los Angeles area, federal and county authorities recently announced charges against three people in a widening homelessness-services fraud investigation, according to CalMatters. Authorities there accused nonprofit founder Michael Young of using shell companies and fake bids to misappropriate $12 million in taxpayer funds, while prosecutors separately alleged that Lakiya Malone accepted roughly $180,000 in bribes to steer purported ghost participants to another nonprofit. A court-ordered 2025 report in that case found Los Angeles city officials failed to properly track $2.3 billion in homeless funds, and that the regional homelessness authority failed to collect accurate vendor data or hold vendors accountable.
A Steep Climb in a Blue State
Komatireddy faces long odds in her bid to unseat James. A recent Siena College poll showed James leading Komatireddy 52% to 39% statewide, and no Republican has won a statewide race in New York since 2002. Election Day is November 3.
