In her early 20s, Shayna struggled with addiction, an abusive relationship, countless stints in and out of jail, and the felonies that came along with them.
Today, as a mother who’s been in recovery for over five years, the burdens from her time in the legal system continue to weigh heavily on her life. Her past can still hold her back, as it has done with housing, secure employment, and even the opportunity to go on a field trip with her children.
“Her record, with three felony convictions, kept her from moving forward,” said Sonja Good Stefani, the director of the Community Law Division at Metropolitan Public Defender.
But today, Good Stefani says, Shayna “has worked hard to get where she is and is now in a safe and respectful relationship, and she had the support of her probation officer to get out from under the stigma of her record.”
And that’s where lawyers with the Community Law Division, a civil legal division of Metropolitan Public Defender (MPD), come in.
Since 2016, the Community Law Division (CLD) has worked to reduce legal barriers not only for people involved in, or at risk of becoming involved in, the criminal justice system, but also for mothers, fathers and families who have or are experiencing poverty, homelessness, human trafficking and other forms of trauma. Multnomah County has partnered with CLD over the last several years and bolstered their efforts to serve even more vulnerable community members, particularly communities of color who too often experience significant poverty and inequities in housing, health, education, food security, wages and more.
“A little bit of legal work goes a long way,” said Good Stefani. “The families we work with are struggling to get stable jobs, safe housing, drive with valid licenses and volunteer at their children’s schools. Their history in a system – be it the criminal justice system, the dependency system, the eviction system – prevents them from being the people and parents they deserve to be.
“We work to lift legal barriers so that they don’t have to contemplate re-entering one of those systems.”
Simply retaining an attorney — let alone hours of legal work that can accompany court proceedings — is costly. But Good Stefani and her team perform the work of clearing legal hurdles for free. Their work can range from getting warrants lifted, felony and misdemeanor reductions, and expunctions to reducing fines and fees, resolving landlord-tenant disputes and eviction defense, and negotiating debt forgiveness. It can also mean providing help with restraining or protection orders, guardianship issues, and even name or gender changes.
Referrals come on behalf of clients of local community-based organizations and throughout Multnomah County’s departments and programs, including the Department of County Human Services, the Multnomah Stability Initiative, the Family Unification Program, Healthy Birth Initiatives, Victim and Survivors of Human Trafficking, the Department of Community Justice’s Women and Family Services Unit and parents on parole and probation, and, most recently, the Joint Office of Homeless Services.
Stephanie Simmons, a manager for the County’s Youth and Family Services Division, helped craft the contract with Metropolitan Public Defender in 2017 to bring legal defense services without the associated fees of legal representation to the County's Multnomah Stability Initiative, Family Unification Program and other County programs.
“This work is crucial to stability,” said Simmons. “MPD attorneys provide legal support to people that would not otherwise have any. We work together to count people into services, rather than use their barriers to exclude them. Families that have been interrupted by an open DHS case have been able to get into stable housing and reunite.”
Since then, the program has expanded to multiple departments and includes efforts to help offset evictions before they happen.
“We know that people of color face evictions at a higher rate,” said Simmons. “We also know that having to show up at a courthouse is a traumatic experience. By having MPD review the eviction notice before a court filing has been made, the case is often settled with the landlord and the tenant avoids that added trauma.”
Case managers from community-based organizations such as Latino Network, Self Enhancement, Inc., Native American Youth and Family Center and more also refer their clients. CLD attorneys work collaboratively with culturally specific case managers and County program staff to establish trust with clients and work to resolve legal issues.
The collateral consequences of past criminal convictions can be immense, taking a toll on the person directly impacted, their children and other family members as well, said Good Stefani. But lifting those burdens — through steps that range from getting a driver’s license reinstated to getting debt eliminated or forgiven — can lead to opportunities in employment, housing, education and economic mobility.
“Many of these people are moms that are really in the thick of a pretty intense crisis and they need stabilization now, to get stable or to get off probation, or may be on the verge of homelessness,” said Good Stefani. “That’s where steps to address past eviction records, reduce felonies to misdemeanors, or negotiate with landlords to prevent or convert evictions to dismissals can pave the way to securing housing.”
In many cases, clients are seeking felony reductions or expunctions from their records. Some may even seek reconsideration of their original convictions or sentences through a joint petition with a district attorney, a process made possible by a new law that took effect at the beginning of 2022.
In Shayna’s case, Good Stefani said that they talked through her options since she was not yet eligible for expunction. Ultimately, Shayna decided to appeal to the judge to reduce her three felony convictions to misdemeanors, believing that doors would open if she didn’t have felonies on her record.
“The Multnomah County District Attorney, after reading about Shayna’s tremendous work in recovery and rebuilding her life, and the obstacles she had already overcome, agreed to join the motion,” said Good Stefani.
Now Shayna is no longer a felon, which means she can now go on field trips with her children “and embrace the real possibility of going back to school and getting a degree,” said Good Stefani.
Shayna’s case is one of hundreds of examples of the successful resolution of legal matters.
The work builds on Legal Services Day events — hosted by the CLD, Multnomah County, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office and the Multnomah County Circuit Courts — where clients can also see fines and fees resolved. CLD processes 720 people per year through Legal Services Day alone, and that doesn’t include the hundreds of clients they represent through their other county programs.
Lowering barriers to opportunities and stability can help people avoid becoming re-involved in the criminal legal system, said Good Stefani.
“We work really hard to prevent them from getting involved in the first place. A lot of our contracts are with organizations and clients who may be at risk of becoming justice involved.”
The Community Law Division’s work comes amid continued back-ups in the courts as a result of the impacts of COVID-19, as well as historically high case volumes and turnover in public defense agencies, including Metropolitan Public Defender.
“The Community Law Division works to prevent them from entering that system in the first place, or ever again. And the hope is that we are providing relief to our criminal defense system, but also increasing stability in our clients’ lives and public safety for our community in general.” said Good Stefani.
CLD’s scope of services recently expanded to include a new Barrier Reduction Team in partnership with the Joint Office of Homeless Services. The first quarter of that program has focused on outreach through community-based organizations with an emphasis on those that serve people of color.
The team assesses if there is anything on people’s records that might be keeping them from getting housed. If the client is struggling to secure housing, Good Stefani said, the team may negotiate with landlords and work to expunge evictions.
“The goal is to focus these services on communities of color because they are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system and poverty in general,” said Good Stefani.
“People of color have suffered under systemically racist systems for far too long in this country, and, sadly, in this county,” said Good Stefani. “And until we can dismantle these systems, Multnomah County, in partnership with the Community Law Division, is working to provide legal services to those who have been most negatively affected.”
