An NY1 investigation has found that the operator of a proposed homeless shelter in Crown Heights has a somewhat checkered past. Courtney Gross filed the following exclusive report.

A nonprofit called CORE Services Group wants to open a 104-bed men's shelter in Crown Heights. The community is suing to stop them. 

Last week, Jack Brown of CORE Services Group said, "We want to maintain and develop a positive working relationships with the community." But a look at what CORE has done elsewhere shows it has a mixed record accomplishing that.

For years, it has run a halfway house just three miles away from the proposed shelter.

The group has earned millions of dollars in a federal government contract. And it did so, at least initially, under a different name: Community First Services.

The halfway house was the subject of a damning report in The New York Times in 2012, which said inmates were not getting services and drugs were present. That was when the group decided to change its name, becoming the nonprofit known today as CORE Services Group.

But controversy followed. A 2015 report from the Justice Department's inspector general found the group didn't meet its contract conditions. Employment verification for inmates was missing, and drug testing wasn't completed. Inmates were not properly being signed in and out of the facility.

All along, CORE claimed the report lacked context and had a prejudicial tone. It was repeating allegations CORE officials said were untrue. 

Members of the community NY1 spoke to said the facility has not caused any problems since.

"I spoke with the local police precinct, the 84th Precinct, and the president of the Vinegar Hill Neighborhood Association, and asked them if they had any complaints, and they said they did not," said Robert Perris, district manager for Community Board 2.

CORE has continued to get millions of dollars in city business.

It operates a family shelter in Brooklyn where city records show the group has a good or fair record of meeting its contract obligations.

Several months ago, it started running a men's homeless shelter out of a Brooklyn motel. Here, clients seem satisfied.

"It's safe. It's clean. And hopefully, they are going to help me get a place," said one client.