• $200,000 grant from the Michigan Justice Fund, an initiative of the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan.
• Money goes toward expungement hearing costs for PCS participants.
• Project Clean Slate has been able to expunge more than 19,000 records; this fund will allow that work to continue unabated.

The City of Detroit and Project Clean Slate (PCS) have been awarded a Michigan Justice Fund grant, an initiative of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. This grant will allow Project Clean Slate to continue providing essential expungement services to the Detroit community by supporting expungement hearing attorney coverage over the next two years.

The Michigan Justice Fund awarded $200,000 to the City of Detroit/Project Clean Slate. The funding will help fill a critical gap in attorney support, which will enable the program to continue providing free, efficient legal services to Detroit residents and City of Detroit employees.

Project Clean Slate provides Detroit residents and City of Detroit employees with high-quality legal care that aids in the expungement of eligible criminal convictions. Criminal records create long-term barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities. PCS’ expungement process alleviates these barriers by permanently sealing criminal convictions from clients’ records. 

The program, launched in 2016, began with just a handful of expungements and has since grown into the country’s leading municipal expungement initiative. The PCS team has helped Detroiters expunge over 19,000 convictions and expunges thousands of criminal convictions each year.  

“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.”

During the two-year grant period, PCS expects more than 15,000 Detroit residents to apply for the program, and the team will expunge 10,000 convictions during the grant period.  

The funds from the Michigan Justice Fund grant have been released to Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation (DESC), who serves as PCS’ fiduciary. DESC is the City of Detroit’s workforce agency and a member of the Michigan Works Agency network. They specialize in helping Detroiters, including “returning citizens” who have been through Project Clean Slate find work.