The City of New York has paid a non-profit housing provider more than $1 million in 2022 after it sued the company last year and vowed to cut ties with it and its embattled CEO Jack Brown.
The New York Post is reporting the city had promised to stop funding the homeless services provider CORE Services Group — which it sued in December for allegedly siphoning money intended to help the homeless into the pockets of Brown and his executives — but the company still earned at least $1.4 million this year before the money train was finally derailed.
Brown — who was once described in a New York State Comptroller report as having “a disturbing pattern of ethical violations” — helped CORE accumulate nearly $800 million in government contracts since 2014. By the end of 2021, it was providing services to 1,400 people including 1,100 homeless occupants in 10 hotels in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx while Brown earned a salary of more than $1 million a year from CORE and companies affiliated with it.
The Post reported last fall that Brown funneled millions in taxpayer funds in recent years to a network of for-profit companies he cobbled together. The city, which raised concerns about the organization’s spending in 2019 and ordered a forensic audit of it in 2020, said it had ordered CORE to close those groups.
The city completely cut ties with CORE on March 31, and it no longer operates any homeless shelter here, but the company still claims the city owes it $37 million.
The Department of Homeless Services didn’t reveal to the newspaper who took over the CORE’s contracts.
Brown earned $386,298 from CORE in 2020, and received another $460,000 from groups affiliated with it. He also received $188,461 and a $22,500 bonus from a related nonprofit called CORE Services Group NY Inc, according to the report.
CORE said in a statement that Brown’s income was in line with those of executives at similarly sized businesses.
[New York Post] — Vince DiMiceli