CLEVELAND, Ohio - It was basically the "dumbest thing I ever did."

That's how a 22-year-old Cleveland mother remembers the winter day she and a few high school friends got caught stuffing clothes and merchandise into their bags at a mall store in Strongsville.

It later led to her arrest, owing $700 in bail, a theft conviction, probation, rejection after rejection from jobs, limited housing choices and the mounting stress of having to rely on her grandma to help support her son while she sorted the whole mess out.

Which, last month, she finally did with the help of a free Legal Aid Society of Cleveland attorney paid for by a federal grant meant to enable more "second chances" in situations like hers.

What the young woman needed was simple enough -- for her misdemeanor conviction to be expunged. It seemed, though, like a huge hurdle.

When you are asking your grandma for diaper money you can't really shell out $75 to $250 for a lawyer.

"I was depressed," she said. "I wanted to work and to earn money."

First she turned to Google, and soon realized that asking a suburban municipal court to effectively erase her conviction - the only legal trouble she'd even been in - was over her head. The paperwork was too complicated.

When a pamphlet arrived at her CMHA housing unit about a Legal Aid program, she was on the phone to sign up right away. Soon she met Agustin Ponce deLeon, her attorney, who helped her file a request to the Berea Municipal Court in November, which a judge granted at the end of January.

(The Plain Dealer isn't naming the woman because that would defeat the purpose that expunging her record served.)

She eagerly shared her story at Legal Aid's offices one morning, hoping those without convictions might understand the stress that even one mistake like hers could cause. And how, even those trying to fix it might feel feel stuck.

"It's kind of embarrassing in a sense," she said, her eyes cast downward. "You'll apply for jobs and have good interviews and nobody calls you back ...I just stopped going on interviews."

The mother's attorney was paid for by a $100,000 grant awarded to Legal Aid and the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice.

The "second chance" money is meant to help young people, under 25, who live or have lived in public housing or receive vouchers through what's commonly referred to as Section 8, to get past hurdles to things like finding work or affordable places to live.

That could be an expungement, like the 22-year-old mother needed, or assistance in restoring a suspended driver's license or dealing with court fines or fees.

Criminal record expungements are in high demand on Cuyahoga County, with the number jumping from 100 in 2015 to 2,000 last year, according to the county records.

Director of Resident Services Kristie Groves said the program fits in with the CMHA's aim to promote self-sufficiency for its residents, whether that means getting a better job, housing or overcoming other legal hurdles to success, like civil and criminal legal barriers.

Click here to see a list of issues the attorneys can help with or meet in-person with attorneys at one of two community legal clinics. (Bring paperwork related to the issue you need help with.)

• Outhwaite Community Center on March 21 from 2 to 4 p.m.
• Woodhill Estates Community Center June 20 from 2 to 4 p.m.

The young mother sees the help she got as a step toward independence, a chance her mother, who struggled for decades to find a living-wage because of a low-level felony conviction, didn't get.

"I watched my mom struggle," she said. "I don't want to go through that. I'm not about to put my son through what me and my brother went through."

This week, the mother started a new job as a caregiver for infants at a suburban daycare, and is making plans to move with her toddler to Portage County, where she hopes to find affordable housing that doesn't come with the nightly sounds of gunshots the family lives with currently at her Woodland Avenue housing complex.

"I'll never have a record again," she said. "Trust me."