By Tracey Wiltgen and Tom Mitrano
Full story is posted at: https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/05/03/editorial/insight/tenants-feel-the-squeeze-socially-distant-mediation-can-aid-landlord-tenant/
With thousands of layoffs and furloughs, tenants are stretched to pay their rent, and property owners are worried about how they will pay their mortgage and other bills. If owners and tenants do not talk and work out payment plans, they may find themselves in bitter disputes frustrated by a back-logged eviction process now and then later when the stay-at-home moratorium is lifted.
In response, the five mediation centers recently created a joint “Rapid Response Owner-Tenant Mediation Program.” Using videoconference, telephone or a secure online platform, an impartial mediator helps owners and tenants discuss options, such as payment plans, temporary rent reduction, deferred payments, and other creative solutions. The goal is finding a way for owners to receive some fair level of payment that also lets tenants stay at home.
The incentive to compromise is clear: Making a plan, even a temporary one, can help relieve fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the future.
The community mediation centers are providing the owner-tenant mediation services at no cost to the participants.
Mediation cannot solve all problems. But even during a pandemic, mediators need to — and can — use safe, civil, and respectful ways to solve conflicts and take their services, socially distanced, directly to people who want these services, wherever they are.
