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Before Janaya Lewinski leads a mediation session as part of Philadelphia鈥檚 Eviction Diversion Program, she wants to know as much as possible about the tenant, the details of their living situation, and why they鈥檝e fallen behind on rent. Are there underlying issues with the landlord, like a bathroom that鈥檚 long needed repairs? Had they been struggling to cover a rent increase, or has an emergency derailed their ability to pay?

鈥淵ou meet people where they are,鈥� Lewinski notes, 鈥渁nd the mediation itself opens up lines of communication.鈥� Tenants and landlords who may have rarely spoken directly are given space to discuss nuanced details that would likely be left out of an eviction hearing. And unlike eviction, trained mediators help landlord and tenant hammer out a payment plan that benefits both parties. 鈥淲hen a tenant shares their plan to pay their landlord back, it makes a landlord really responsive,鈥� Lewinski says.  

Such mediations between landlords and tenants are increasingly common in Philadelphia, which  its  in August to keep people from losing their homes during the pandemic. With few exceptions, the program requires landlords, before filing for evictions in court, to go to mediation with tenants to try to work out something. Sue Wasserkrug, who oversees the mediation program, called it a 鈥渨in-win-win鈥� for the landlords, tenants, and the city. 

Indeed, Philadelphia鈥檚 approach is the rare initiative that has been met with a chorus of praise by people who often find themselves cast as adversaries. 鈥淭his is a way to create a bridge between the tenant and the landlord, to walk safely on it and communicate with each other,鈥� Moshe Attas, a landlord and property manager, told City Council members in November. 

Such consensus is the result of years of laying groundwork for the initiative, taking advantage of existing partnerships, recruiting volunteers to pilot it, and scaling it up to an official city program. In December, City Council members unanimously  eviction diversion into 2021, which the city believes can mitigate hundreds of evictions during the pandemic.

鈥淭his has been very, very successful,鈥� says Melissa Long, the director of the city鈥檚 Division of Housing and Community Development. 鈥淏ut while it seems like a simple concept, the actual work is not simple.鈥�

Everyone鈥檚 Involved

The program鈥檚 roots go back to the 2008-2009 housing crisis, when foreclosure filings in Philadelphia surged by 200%. In response, the court created a  in a short period with a simple goal: Place homeowners and their legal aid advocates face to face with lenders to work out a resolution. The program was wildly successful, saving over 16,000 homes from foreclosure,  Annette Rizzo, a retired judge who oversaw the program.

City officials wondered whether they could replicate that success for renters. In 2017, the city recorded over 24,000 eviction filings鈥攁 process in which tenants face . Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney established an eviction task force that recommended, , developing 鈥渁 venue for landlords and tenants to meet before an eviction complaint is even filed.鈥� The idea was to provide 鈥渁n opportunity to negotiate repayment of rent without generating legal costs for either party, and without introducing an eviction filing to the tenant鈥檚 record.鈥�

As a result, the city funded a pilot as part of the . The free, voluntary program kicked off in the fall of 2019 and was extended for a year before being cut short by the pandemic. 

, a nonprofit focused on neighborhood conflict resolution, oversaw it. 鈥淢ediation is a great tool for resolving conflict particularly when the parties involved have some kind of a relationship and will continue to have one,鈥� says Wasserkrug, who is the program administrator at Good Shepherd. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why it鈥檚 good for landlord-tenant disputes.鈥� 

To recruit volunteer mediators, Good Shepherd reached out to Rizzo, who oversaw the foreclosure diversion program, as well as the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators, the Philadelphia Bar Association, and various law firms. That team became a hodgepodge of retired judges, attorneys, and community mediators, Wasserkrug says. More partners came on to provide housing counseling, legal, and technical support. The city launched tenant mediation as an official program .

In the current model, landlords submit an application for mediation with one of about 70 mediators through a , where it鈥檚 received and reviewed by staff of . Then the city alerts the tenant through text and email. If contact isn鈥檛 made, Philadelphia Legal Assistance handles direct outreach. 

Once a tenant agrees to participate, a housing counselor talks with them before mediation to review their objectives and ability to pay rent, and to help them apply for rental assistance, or find new housing. 

The mediator鈥檚 goals, according to Wasserkrug, are opening doors to productive communication and ideally arranging a plan both sides can agree to. Mediators often help the parties set up one of two payment plans鈥攐ne plan splits the back rent into nine payment installments, and in the other plan the tenant pays smaller installments with a larger final payment of the remainder of the balance. 

Participant Diane Buchanan, who testified to the City Council in November, shared that after her daughter, who lived with her, lost her job because of the pandemic, they began to worry about paying their rent on time. At around the same time, their refrigerator broke, and the landlord was slow to help. Instead of the relationship deteriorating, mediation brought Buchanan and her landlord to an agreement: she鈥檇 make her best effort to pay the full rent while they agreed to replace the fridge.

鈥淭hese kinds of stories help people understand what鈥檚 going on with tenants during the pandemic,鈥� Lewinski notes. 

As of Jan. 5, 2021, the city had received 1,120 completed applications for mediation. Of the 463 landlord/tenant pairs that participated, 317 reached an agreement. 103 of the pairs agreed on a different outcome鈥攍ike the tenant deciding to move out鈥攁nd in 28 cases no agreement was reached. (The final 15 meditations were in the process of being recorded.) 

Participants in the diversion program will be able to apply for the city鈥檚 new COVID-19 rental assistance program that. Long, of the Division of Housing and Community Development, stressed that for cases of nonpayment, mediation cannot stand alone鈥攖he ability to reach a repayment agreement often depends on ongoing rental assistance that tenants and landlords can access. 鈥淲hen you have a situation where the eviction action is being motivated by nonpayment, you need levels of rental assistance to help that tenant stay in their home,鈥� she says. 

But ultimately city officials know they鈥檙e building a solid framework that鈥檚 keeping landlords and tenants out of court. 鈥淚 say that we鈥檙e sailing this ship through uncharted waters, as we鈥檙e building the ship,鈥� Wasserkrug jokes. 鈥淏ut our hope is that pre-filing mediation in the landlord-tenant context becomes the new normal.鈥� 

This article originally appeared in and is republished here as part of the SoJo Exchange from the , a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous reporting about responses to social problems.