In the spirit of giving, the American Bar Association Fund for Justice, through its Justice and Education Project, has approved a $4,000 grant to the King County Bar Foundation to support the delivery of dispute resolution services to low income persons. The grant will help fund a Landlord/Tenant Mediation Project.

The goal of the project is to reduce the incidents of eviction of low-income tenants through the use of alternative dispute resolution and a holistic approach to conflicts between tenants and their landlords. Training modules are being developed for landlords/property managers, tenant advocates and tenants. The trainings are designed to address landlord/tenant conflicts by educating all parties about mediation, negotiating skills, creative problem solving and resource information. The trainings will also emphasize communication skills designed to resolve conflicts without resorting to court proceedings. The training will provide landlords and tenants with information about their rights and responsibilities, with the goal of avoiding situations leading to evictions.

KCBA Community Legal Services held a CLE, “Mediation: A Tool for Housing Providers and Tenant Advocates,” on October 8, 2004 where participants learned the fundamentals of landlord-tenant law and the unlawful detainer process as well as the basics of how to use mediation to assist in resolving landlord-tenant issues. Over 40 affordable housing providers and social service agency representatives attended the training.

Lisa Hays from Riddell Williams volunteered her time to educate the attendees about general housing law and the eviction process. Vivien Sharples from the Dispute Resolution Center explained how the mediation process works and can be implemented to assist communication and resolution between landlords and tenant. Attendees were enthusiastic about the possibility of resolving disputes before they lead to eviction. This could lead to decreased homelessness for low-income tenants and spare housing providers the time and expense of litigation.

The Community Legal Services program will provide additional training about landlord/tenant law and mediation at the annual new attorney training held in February 2005. If you are interested in learning more about this project contact Merf Ehman, Staff Attorney, Housing Justice Project merfe@kcba.org or call (206) 267-7019.

Volunteering with Community Legal Services and taking the mediation/housing training will do much to promote communication and education about resolving disputes through negotiations--a perfect “gift” for this holiday season that will “keep on giving.” You will also help the Community Legal Services Committee reach our two year goal of increasing the number of pro bono attorneys from 1,400 to 1,500. You will be glad you did. n