1. Tenant-landlord Mediation
With the pandemic-sparked economic downturn, untold numbers of renters in the U.S. became newly vulnerable to financial and housing insecurity. Advocates worry that a wave of evictions will follow the lifting of emergency moratoriums currently in place. But pre-court mediation programs in Philadelphia offer an approach to preventing displacement and heading off protracted legal battles between landlords and tenants.
As part of the Philadelphia Eviction Prevention Project, the Good Shepherd Mediation Program has tested free and voluntary landlord-tenant mediation and, during COVID19, has started offering a virtual mediation through Zoom.
“Mediation is a particularly good conflict-resolution process for situations where the parties have some kind of a relationship and they’re going to continue to have some kind of a relationship, as opposed to a car accident with a stranger, where you don’t know the person,” says Sue Wasserkrug, a program admin