reinventing evictions

The Salt Lake Tribune recently featured an article that proposed 3 examples of other areas who are approaching issue of Covid relate eviction in different ways.  

One of the examples given was was in Philadelphia.  Here is what they did:

While Utah officials have justified paying eviction landlord attorney fees for evictions that were started before rental assistance was sought, the City of Brotherly Love took another approach. Philadelphia requires landlords to take part in mediation with renters and to also apply for federal rental assistance before they can file an eviction in court.
Often the parties agree to payment plans so that renters are not expected to pay off arrears all at once.
Creating a space for mediation — where the renters also have legal counsel to advise them — has led to a 90% success rate in terms of renters either staying in their homes, settling on a repayment plan or coming to an “exit strategy” to leave the apartment at a time that works for them, according to program administrator Sue Wasserkrug.
“It’s unburdening the courts and relieves both of the parties of all the stress of going to court,” Wasserkrug says. “It’s providing some certainty and stability for the parties.”
We could not be happier to see the successes of mediation used in this way.  Articles like this one are the reason mediation gets it's due credit as a valid form of legal resolution to conflict.