SHEEPSHEAD BAY — ELECTED OFFICIALS ARE ANGRY over the city’s decision to convert a family shelter, and its choice of a not-for-profit partner whose former senior executives have faced federal indictment charges since March.
The city has reportedly partnered with the Nostrand Avenue-based BHRAGS, whose website states it provides services to the homeless, elderly and persons with developmental disabilities. According to documents filed in Brooklyn federal court, BHRAGS’ senior executives at the time were charged with bribery and the embezzlement of over $1 million. A City Reporter article from June 29 indicated BHRAGS is under new leadership, according to DSS’ spokesperson Nema Sharma.
These allegations “raise significant questions about the provider’s fitness to operate a taxpayer-funded shelter,” Vernikov wrote in her letter to City Comptroller Mark Levine, which Assemblymember Kalman Yeger and state Sen. Sam Sutton also signed.
In a possibly related case, Councilmember Farah Louis (D-45) and residents of East Flatbush also protested the planned conversion of a family shelter on Kings Highway to one for single men, the Brooklyn Eagle and News 12 Brooklyn reported last week. Spectrum News NY1 in March quoted Mayor Zohran Mamdani saying that the city would “definitely be looking into” existing contracts that the city has with BHRAGS.
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