Community Dispute Settlement Center offers free mediation services
COURTESY OF COMMUNITY DISPUTE SETTLEMENT CENTER
The Community Dispute Settlement Center announced the availability of free mediation services to landlords and tenants as part of the state’s Eviction Diversion Initiative.
This free service is designed to resolve eviction or other housing-related conflicts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Free mediation services are also available for separating parents to address issues about co-parenting time and other child related conflicts through the Center’s Parent Mediation Program. Services are available to any interested and eligible individuals from funding from the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration.
The Martha s Vineyard Times
M.V. Mediation program takes on evictions
The EDI is an array of programs that help landlords and tenants affected by the pandemic.
In collaboration with other Massachusetts mediation centers, through the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration network, MVMP is offering free mediation and other services to those on-Island, particularly surrounding housing agreements.
“Housing is crucial. As the winter continues, we know that landlords and tenants are negatively affected by the uncertainty of the present moment,” MVMP executive director Sara Barnes said in the release. “Our mediators can help turn tough times and difficult conversations into self-determined agreements. Housing mediation promotes more effective communication through neutral facilitation as part of the mediation process. Since 1984, we have helped many Islanders resolve conflicts, often without going to court.”
Reply
With a mission to help students be successful – both inside and outside of the classroom – Middlesex Community College understands that academic success is related to an individual s most basic needs being met. MCC s Law Center is helping students and the community maintain their stable housing situations in direct response to housing insecurity due to the pandemic.
Middlesex was named one of 12 state qualified Community Mediation Centers to assist with the operation of a statewide Housing Mediation Program sponsored by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), which is conducted under the oversight of the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC).
Jon Gorey - Globe Correspondent December 10, 2020 11:00 pm
Eviction filings in Massachusetts have been climbing since a statewide moratorium expired in October. And while Governor Charlie Baker has allocated an extra $171 million to tenant and landlord relief programs, eviction cases are expected to climb even faster in the new year, after a federal moratorium issued by the Centers for Disease Control expires on December 31.
The double-edged COVID housing crisis threatens both tenants a quarter of whom were unable to pay rent on time in December, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council and small landlords, who often rely on that rent to pay their own mortgages. Both groups are key constituents for real estate brokers, which is one reason the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) has created a first-in-the-nation scholarship program that will fund mediation training for its members through the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC).�