ICLC Client Freed from Ten-Year-Old Warrants

Thomas Johnson* has overcome so much in his life. He won a long battle with alcoholism five years ago, and is still celebrating his sobriety. Then he was diagnosed with throat cancer, but he beat that as well.

Still, finding stable housing has been a challenge that he hasn’t been able to overcome. He has been living in his truck for quite some time, and when the pandemic hit, he was furloughed from his construction job. To make matters worse, he had received four citations in 2011 (when he was still suffering from alcoholism and living on the streets), and now the unpaid citations had become warrants. Mr. Johnson had no hope of getting them paid off or dismissed.

Thanks to our caring donors, hope arrived in the form of an Inner City Law Center lawyer.

Because the warrants were a decade old, the court required Mr. Johnson and his Inner City Law Center Attorney to appear in person (despite the risk of catching Covid in the courtroom). Fortunately, the judge recalled the warrants and dismissed the tickets in the interest of justice. The judge also dismissed the corresponding fines and fees of $2,220. With the citations behind him, Mr. Johnson is working with his caseworker to secure stable housing and employment.

This is just one of the successful outcomes made possible by ICLC supporters. In the first half of the year alone, our staff of 109 maintained 1,650 active cases. Note that this is cases, not individual clients. Just one of our slum housing cases may impact dozens of individuals and families!

*Name changed to protect identity of client