Clearance
Judges can award commendations to help people escape homelessness

By ADAM HYLA
Editor

Before most landlords hand out a new house key, they do a background check with the Washington State Patrol. But getting that key from a landlord who discovers a criminal conviction, even a four-, five-, or 10-year-old conviction, is a common concern for people trying to move on with their lives.

It’s a concern shared by Megan Sczcebak of Harborview Mental Health Services, who along with another social worker, is working with mentally ill clients of the First Hill hospital to participate in a new tactic in the effort to end homelessness.

Begun this month with the help of the King County Bar Association, Harborview’s Certificate of Rehabilitation pilot project will offer a select group of squeaky-clean patients a chance to prove to potential landlords or employers that their recent good works — paying rent on time, going to treatment, taking their meds, or volunteering at a local food bank, for example — should be considered alongside the documentation that reveals their prior conviction for drug use or petty crime.

The pilot project involves Harborview’s caseload of 60 to 100 clients, says Sczcebak; of that number, she estimates that only about 10 percent, or six to 10, are eligible. That’s because, any convictions on their record must be for nonviolent crimes; they must have taken place more than three years ago; and, since then, they must have accomplished at least two years of sobriety and stability.

Once Harborview establishes that this is the case, they fill out an application packet that enumerates the steps taken to recovery. Supporting documents — pay stubs, a student ID, a GED — are collected. A case manager and a psychiatrist write letters of reference. And one of the county Bar Association’s volunteer attorneys presents this evidence to a judge.

Then, if the judge grants a Certificate of Rehabilitation, the client can submit it along with employment or housing applications.

When a landlord does the background check, the applicant “can say, ‘Yeah, it’s on there, but here’s this legal document,’” says Harborview mental health practitioner Mike Donegan.

The pilot project may be expanded later this year; Szczebak says other social service organizations are already calling and asking how they might enroll their clients.

“People are just going crazy for it,” she says. “We’ve had people calling from the county, from every other mental health center, asking, ‘How do I get my clients involved in this?’

The Committee to End Homelessness is beginning to ask housing providers to pledge that they’ll accept applicants with a criminal history — so long as they come armed with a judge’s commendation.

“It may be awhile before we push those doors open,” says the Committee’s Bill Block, “but there’s too many people for whom a five-year-old conviction is a one-way ticket to homelessness. There’s got to be a way to solve that.”