The City of Detroit and Project Clean Slate (PCS) have received a $200,000 grant from the Michigan Justice Fund, which is an initiative of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. The funding will support attorney coverage for expungement hearings over the next two years, allowing PCS to continue its work without interruption.
Project Clean Slate offers free legal services to Detroit residents and City of Detroit employees seeking to expunge eligible criminal convictions. These services help remove barriers that criminal records create in areas such as employment, housing, and education by permanently sealing convictions from clients’ records.
Since its launch in 2016, PCS has grown significantly. The program started with only a few expungements but has now helped more than 19,000 people clear their records. Each year, thousands of convictions are expunged through this initiative.
“The Michigan Justice Fund has been a constant a supporter and funder of Project Clean Slate dating back to 2021,” said Stephani LaBelle, Executive Director of PCS. “The funding is critical to the program and will enable PCS hearing attorneys to expunge thousands of convictions for eligible Detroiters.”
Over the two-year period covered by this grant, PCS expects that more than 15,000 Detroit residents will apply for assistance through the program. The team aims to expunge about 10,000 convictions during this time.
The funds have been released to Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC), which acts as PCS’s fiduciary. DESC is the workforce agency for the City of Detroit and is part of the Michigan Works Agency network. It assists Detroiters—including those who have gone through Project Clean Slate—in finding employment opportunities.
