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HCHA meeting September 7, 2021 <br />doing is bridging the gap between those folks and also sharing resources with <br />folks, for example, we are sending everyone information about the rental, <br />Emergency Rental Assistance Program so that landlords and tenants both have <br />that information like one of the Councilmembers said, I can't remember who <br />now, but the people, I think it was Matt, people still don't know about this <br />program so sometimes we're sharing it with people who call for the very first time <br />or they have heard on the news that it's run out of money and that's Oahu's <br />program, not Hawai `i County. Mediation is very different than going to court <br />and in court everything is public, it's intimidating, it's very formal, it's based on <br />legal precedence and in mediation we can help people talk story, talk story <br />with the mediators, talk story with each other, by being impartial, the mediators <br />demonstrate to the participants that they don't really have a stake in what's <br />happening, they do have stake in helping people see if they can work it out on <br />their own and to see if people can negotiate some solutions going forward, I <br />can tell you over here the mediation agreements so far have all included rental <br />assistance either continuing on with the application, continuing to <br />communicate because it's been granted or applying for the very first time. If <br />people are able to come with a mediated agreement, that helps them avoid <br />court so I think one of the big empathise behind this program is to divert cases to <br />mediation so that we're preventing eviction, we're preventing people from <br />potentially becoming houseless and preventing an on slot in the courts of <br />summary possession cases and so this is kind of like the last stop where the <br />people can make the decisions for themselves to avoid going through that <br />court process. Next slide, Sharon. And so some things that we anticipate <br />negotiating and we also anticipate some very creative solutions that may not <br />be on this list so we're looking at a combination of these usually so for example, <br />let's apply for rental assistance together, it's going to cover up to this many <br />months and then there may be other months that are not covered, let's do a <br />payment plan for those, is there an opportunity to do some work trade, to work <br />off some of this money owed, what about going forward, so let's say rental <br />assistance is going to cover you for 12 months, what about the next four months <br />of rent that are coming up before the end of year and in some instances it may <br />be moving out is the preferred solution so we've had some agreements where <br />we've seen that the landlords agrees to let the tenant move out and waive all <br />back rents owed and just keep the security deposit in order to recoup, reclaim <br />the unit and then that's also help for the tenant who wants to leave without <br />having an eviction on their record. Anything else that would support folks to <br />come to resolution together is something that we are in favor of so it's very <br />unique to each person, I mean there are going to be some similarities but each <br />agreement is written separately and independently of each other one, every <br />other one, so that people can come up with whatever creative solutions work <br />for them and their specific situation. Next slide, Sharon. We have dedicated <br />web pages, dedicated emails and dedicated phone numbers specifically for <br />this program and again, it's based on where the rental unit is located so where <br />Page 28 of 34 <br />