New York Attorney General Letitia James took no enforcement action against three homeless shelter operators accused of fraud and mismanagement, even as people tied to those operators poured more than $56,000 into her campaign accounts.
Story Snapshot
- Three shelter operators — Samaritan Daytop Village, Acacia Network Housing, and CORE Services Group — saw no enforcement from James’s office since she took office in 2019.
- Donors connected to those groups gave James’s campaigns over $56,000, including a board member, a lobbying firm, and her longtime chief campaign strategist.
- A 2024 city watchdog report found nepotism, rigged bidding, and bloated salaries across 51 city-funded shelter providers, including two of the three named operators.
- CORE already faced real consequences from other agencies, including a federal raid and a city lawsuit, while James’s office stayed quiet.
- A Republican running for attorney general is now demanding answers about why James’s office looked the other way.
Donors Linked To Shelter Operators Gave Big
LifeZette reported that Samaritan Daytop Village, Acacia Network Housing, and CORE Services Group have faced no enforcement action from James’s office since 2019. During that same stretch, people connected to those three groups gave her campaigns more than $56,000. That is not pocket change, and it raises an obvious question for New York taxpayers footing the bill for troubled shelters.
Samaritan board member Vito F. Pitta personally donated $6,000 to James’s campaigns since 2018. His lobbying firm, Pitta LP, kicked in another $22,500 on top of that. That is nearly $30,000 flowing from one network tied to a single shelter operator into the campaign war chest of the woman whose office was supposed to be watching that operator’s books.
James’s Own Campaign Strategist Tied To Acacia
The Acacia Network Housing connection runs even closer to home. Luis Miranda Jr., James’s longtime chief campaign strategist, works as a leading lobbyist for Acacia Network. Miranda and his wife, Luz Towns-Miranda, gave a combined $25,898 to James’s campaign committees since 2018. A top political adviser lobbying for a shelter operator under scrutiny, while his wife also writes checks to the same candidate, is the kind of overlap that fuels conflict-of-interest concerns.
Watchdogs Already Flagged The Shelter System
These three operators did not escape attention everywhere. They drew scrutiny from the New York State Comptroller’s Office, the state Inspector General, the New York City Department of Investigation, and federal authorities. A 2024 Department of Investigation review of 51 city-funded shelter providers, including Acacia and CORE, found “nepotism, lack of competitive bidding and exorbitant salaries”. That is a damning finding from City Hall’s own internal watchdog, not a partisan talking point invented for this story.
CORE Services Group saw the most concrete fallout of the three. New York City cut ties with CORE in November 2021. Federal agents raided the group’s Brooklyn headquarters the following month. The city then sued to recover $2.3 million in alleged excessive executive salaries. City officials, prosecutors, and federal agents all acted. James’s office, with jurisdiction over nonprofit charities statewide, reportedly did not.
GOP Challenger Demands Explanation
Saritha Komatireddy, a Republican running for attorney general, publicly blasted James for allegedly ignoring fraud in the shelter system. A spokesperson for James countered that shelter funding was protected through her work and that all New Yorkers should live with dignity, while also criticizing President Trump over proposed shelter-funding cuts. That response addresses funding levels, but it does not explain why her office took no enforcement action against operators other agencies were actively investigating.
The attorney general’s office is charged with policing nonprofit charities and protecting donors from fraud, under its own stated mission. “No enforcement action” does not automatically mean no review ever happened behind closed doors. But with city, state, and federal agencies all finding or pursuing problems at these shelters, and tens of thousands of campaign dollars flowing from people connected to them, New Yorkers deserve a direct answer from James’s office about what, if anything, it actually did.
