An investigation in the New York Times on Sunday alleged that the CEO of a major New York City homeless services provider has personally enriched himself and his family members with city money while running shelters that residents described as dirty and unsafe.

But Jack Brown, the CEO of CORE Services Group, provides shelter and programming for unhoused people in another city, too. His D.C.-based company, CORE DC, has secured at least $4.2 million in contracts with the D.C. government since 2019 to operate three family homeless shelters, and is also slated to operate a new halfway house for men in Ward 7.

The city maintains that his company’s shelters are providing the promised quality of housing and services for residents experiencing homelessness in D.C.

The reporting in the Times focused largely on Brown’s operations in New York, where his footprint is much larger than D.C.: Brown’s nonprofit has received $104 million in New York City funding for homelessness this year alone.

The Times reported that for years, Brown has created a lucrative business out of providing shelter to residents experiencing homelessness. He used his New York-based nonprofit to pay for-profit companies that were also connected to him: He started a security company to police the shelters his nonprofit ran. He started a maintenance company to do shelter repairs. He started a catering company to provide food services to the shelters. And, according to the Times, Brown owns two real estate companies that rented out buildings to his nonprofit.

The outlet found that this strategy helped Brown earn more than $1 million a year and made him the highest-paid shelter operator in New York, according to available records. The Times’ investigation also found that Brown hired several of his own family members — his mother, aunt, sister, brother, and niece — for high-paying jobs at his non-profit.

Federal and state laws prohibit executives from receiving personal benefits from their organizations without disclosing them, but, the Times reported, “the line between permissible transactions and illegal behavior can be hazy, and nonprofit executives are rarely prosecuted for financial abuses.” A spokesperson for CORE told WAMU/DCist that the company made all the required disclosures to the city, and says that the reporting in the Times is a mischaracterization. The spokesperson said that all employees at the company are “fully qualified” for their roles and CORE complies with all relevant hiring practices.

“This story contains numerous inaccuracies, including false and misleading claims made by the City of New York,” said the statement. “It cherry-picked interviews and facts and failed to acknowledge the quality service that Jack Brown and CORE have provided to New Yorkers in need for more than a decade, despite the many financial and operational challenges involved in working with New York City’s notoriously overburdened homeless services system, and the fact that CORE has been forced to cover millions in unpaid City bills for shelter operations.”

A CORE spokesperson told the Times that CORE had established the for-profit subsidiaries because the New York City government often lagged in getting payments out and because other vendors it had worked with did not do work that was up to par.

The CORE spokesperson says that its operations in D.C. are completely separate from its New York operations, writing in an emailed statement that CORE DC “does not work with subsidiaries of CORE Services.” A sign viewed by a WAMU/DCist reporter outside CORE DC’s H Street offices on Monday said that three of Brown’s other companies — the security company ProCORE, the catering company Flavor Foods, and the maintenance company CORE Facilities Management — were all located in the space as well. The spokesperson for CORE told WAMU/DCist that those companies are not doing business in D.C. at this time.

D.C.’s Department of Human Services, which oversees D.C.’s family shelters, did not provide DCist/WAMU with the names of the subcontractors that CORE DC uses for its shelter contracts, but said in an emailed statement that “the CORE entity in DC is a for profit business entity, only operates within District owned facilities, and is mandated to use subcontractors that are qualified as a Certified Business Enterprise (CBE). These subcontractors have been certified by the District’s Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) and have a pre-established existence in the District of Columbia prior to CORE’s presence in the city.”

The Times also spoke with New York City residents experiencing homelessness who said that it didn’t feel like the millions of dollars in contracts for Brown’s companies were amounting to quality services. Residents at one of Brown’s largest shelters in Queens described vermin infestations, mold, and violent fights in the hallways. CORE said in its emailed statement to WAMU/DCist that it “works to resolve any dispute expeditiously,” and that maintenance and janitorial services at the Queens shelter are provided by the landlord’s company.

DHS said in an emailed statement to WAMU/DCist that CORE DC has “met or exceeded all contractual obligations” at the three shelters it operates in the city: The Terrell shelter in Ward 1, the Aya shelter in Ward 6, and the Horizon shelter in Ward 7. DHS said it monitors the conditions at its temporary family shelter programs through monthly in-person scheduled and unscheduled site visits, along with other meetings and surveys. CORE DC’s halfway house in Ward 7 has not opened yet, and CORE DC could not provide a timeline for its opening. The federal Bureau of Prisons, which awarded CORE the five-year, $60 million halfway house contract, also did not return a request for comment by deadline.

CORE’s history in D.C. goes back to at least 2018, when the company won a Bureau of Prisons contract for a halfway house over the city’s longtime men’s federal halfway house provider, Hope Village. But the award was in limbo for years afterwards as CORE DC repeatedly struggled to secure a location in the District.

Hope Village had for years been dogged by accusations that it was failing to provide adequate services to returning citizens — some incarcerated people even said they would rather stay in federal prisons than spend time in the Hope Village Halfway House, according to the D.C. Corrections Information Council. Given the contractor’s reputation, and following a tour of CORE’s Brooklyn halfway house and conversations with company leadership, a group of 20 D.C. nonprofits called the Reentry Action Network even went so far as to endorse that the Bureau of Prisons choose CORE DC’s bid over Hope Village’s.

Eventually, CORE DC was able to begin construction in Ward 7 off of Benning Road Northeast — despite opposition from some neighbors and Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray.

In the letter explaining its decision in February of 2020, RAN cited CORE’s promises to actively collaborate with D.C.’s reentry-focused nonprofits and ensure the same standards of cleanliness they observed at the Brooklyn facility.

“RAN is committed to ensuring CORE DC follows through on this promise,” said the letter.