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HCHA meeting September 7, 2021 <br />times, the case manager was able to go back and forth a couple times, the <br />landlord and tenant where then they didn't need our services, they were able <br />to talk directly to one another because the fear of saying or doing the wrong <br />thing was dissipated through what the case manger would pass back and forth <br />and again, even though we're aware of what all services are out there, the <br />public is still not aware, I mean, I can't tell you how many times we're hearing <br />that people still don't know that there's rental assistance available even though <br />it's in the newspaper every day, Jeff has done million presentations, people still <br />don't know about it so just being able to connect people with the resources <br />that will help them, help them talk it out, I think has been really crucial and both <br />the rapid response and landlord/tenant program and also will be the <br />landlord/tenant eviction mediation program will be a key for both. <br />Kierkiewicz: Thank you and I'm just curious if you have the data that would be <br />really great but you know whole intent of the mediation program when you guys <br />launched it was to really flatten that eviction curve so in the work that you've <br />done to date with that initial program, I mean, how many evictions have <br />resulted because we talk about all this work being done in the mediation space, <br />I mean, has it resulted in positive solutions or folks are just not able to move <br />forward and we've seen some evictions kind of result, people can't resolve the <br />situation? <br />Mitchell: Well because there was the State eviction moratorium was in effect <br />until August 6th, I think that put a stay on most, I mean, there was still evictions <br />allowed to go forward in specific limited cases like someone's trashing the place <br />or doing something illegal there but they were not allowed to evict just for non- <br />payment of rent so I think we would have to delve a little more into the filings <br />that are happening in court but you know, the judge, so our deputy chief judge <br />who's also district court judge, Kanani Laubach, she has been convening the <br />mediation centers, Legal Aid, rental assistance, HOPE Services, to try to talk <br />about how we can take a holistic approach to providing services to people as <br />they are coming in and then also we contract with the judiciary collectively to <br />provide mediation centers so we regularly get landlord/tenant cases so they are <br />continuing to utilize mediation I think to try to see what can be done here. The <br />worst thing is when the tenants, they don't show up at court so we've heard <br />from Legal Aid that about 50% of tenants do not show up for their court case so <br />they automatically get a default against them, it's automatically ruled in favor <br />of the tenant so I mean one thing you folks can do is encourage to everyone to <br />show up for their court case. There's a lot of legal services available right now, <br />Legal Aid is providing a lot of information for both landlords and tenants that <br />both mediation centers on this island have posted on our web pages for this <br />program, tenants right and responsibilities, landlords rights and responsibilities so <br />people understand what they should and should not be doing at this point. <br />Page 31 of 34 <br />