October 2022

Executive Summary

Evictions are harmful for everyone involved. Landlords and tenants both want stability in housing arrangements. For landlords, the process of eviction and finding new tenants is costly. For tenants and their families, the costs are even higher: A forced move may mean the loss of their security deposit and belongings, a change in schools, a longer commute to work, and a negative mark on their rental history that can make finding suitable housing more difficult. For some tenants, eviction will result in homelessness. Finding ways to increase housing stability by resolving disputes between landlords and tenants benefits everyone.

This study aims to ascertain whether or not there are ways to increase housing stability by examining the temporary measures Hawaiʻi put into place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To avoid the threat of mass evictions brought on by large scale job loss, Hawaiʻi created rent relief programs that helped tenants and landlords cover rent shortfalls, and created a pre-litigation mediation program through enacting Act 57 (2021), which is the primary focus of this study.

The unique circumstances created by the pandemic permitted the examination of three different mediation programs that varied with respect to timing of the mediation (pre-litigation versus post-case filing), duration of mediation, availability of rental relief, use of video conferencing, and other factors. To better understand the comparative outcomes of the different approaches to landlord-tenant mediation, the research team for this study analyzed data on the outcomes from these three different approaches. Additionally, the team conducted 20 one-on-one interviews with attorneys, tenants and mediators involved in the Act 57 mediation program to better understand the participants’ perceptions about the mediation process.

The analysis revealed that Act 57 pre-litigation mediations had far higher rates of success when compared to the other two programs, both of which held the mediation post-filing of an eviction action (known as “summary possession” in Hawaiʻi and elsewhere)—one in effect prior to the pandemic and the other during. Within the samples reviewed for the study, 87 percent of the Act 57 cases resulted in settlement compared to 47 percent of pre-COVID summary possession mediations and 52 percent for the summary possession meditations during COVID. 

More significantly, of the mediated settlement agreements reviewed for the study, 85 percent of Act 57 cases resulted in the tenant remaining in their home, which only occurred 11 percent of the time in the pre-COVID summary possession settlements, and 20 percent of the time in the summary possession settlements during COVID.

The outcome data, coupled with the participants’ perceptions, suggests the following insights:

• The availability of rental relief is a key factor to ensuring housing stability, but combining rent relief with a robust pre-litigation mediation process is likely to lead to significantly better outcomes than rent relief alone.

• Holding mediation prior to litigation rather than during is likely to help mediation participants avoid an eviction filing and from developing entrenched positions, which can reduce the pressure on tenants to accept settlements that require them to move out, increasing the likelihood of tenants remaining in place.

• Mediation by video conferencing may provide tenants with more comfort and confidence than they would have in an intimidating court environment, placing the parties on a more even field, even if the landlord is represented by counsel at mediation.

• Providing adequate time to mediate may alleviate pressure to rush to a settlement, and contracting paid mediators who are skilled at finding solutions that are mutually beneficial to the needs of both landlords and tenants may increase the likelihood of agreements that permit tenants to stay in their home.

Based on these insights, this report recommends that the Act 57-type mediations be continued in a manner that permits further study of the efficacy of its features, and that the mediation program be paired with emergency rent relief that is more widely available than what existed pre-pandemic.