NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — New York City is severing ties with CORE Services Group, one of the largest nonprofits running homeless shelters.
The move came after a New York Times investigation found CEO Jack A. Brown III was earning a $1 million yearly salary, hired five relatives and steered contracts to for-profit companies he controlled, including a catering business that allegedly made residents sick.
"Moldy bacon and food that made them ill, and they said that the security guards slept on the job and failed to break up fights," said reporter Amy Julia Harris, who authored an investigation for the Times.
According to the report, the city began an audit of the organization in 2019.
CORE, which operates 15 sites, has received more than $352 million in city funding in recent years and Mayor Bill de Blasio said they will try to get some of that money back.
"Of course if there's anything we can do to claw back money or any other type of follow-through we're prepared to do it. It's very troubling to me," de Blasio said Tuesday. "Here we're talking about people in need, folks who are homeless and this organization took advantage of those people and they will no longer be doing business with the city of New York."
De Blasio said the city gave CORE "the opportunity to do the right thing" and that "they had made a number of mistakes."
"They had personnel that we felt were doing the wrong thing. People who are getting exorbitant salaries, we said, these things need to change. They did not change them, and now we've told them they're out of business with us," he said. "We're not working with them anymore."
Most of CORE's sites in the city are expected to close by the end of the year and the mayor said clients will be relocated.
Brown, meanwhile, denies any wrongdoing.
In a statement, CORE said it has been providing services for more than a year for the city without receiving payment.
"This situation was untenable, and CORE is in discussions with the city to secure an amicable resolution to minimize impacts on CORE's clients and employees," the statement read.
