February Marks the Start of Center's Homeless Mitigation Mediation Program

The Connecticut Department of Housing invited Quinnipiac University School of Law to develop and implement a 6-month pilot statewide eviction prevention program, which began February 1. The program, the Homelessness Mitigation Mediation Program (HMMP), is intended to help address the looming homelessness crisis expected after the State’s current eviction moratorium ends April 19. The HMMP is a joint venture involving the Law School’s Center on Dispute Resolution (CDR) and its Clinical Legal Education Program.

HMMP’s Executive Director is Brendan Holt, a practicing attorney, mediator, and CDR Senior Fellow, who currently also is employed part-time as an adjunct professor and director of Quinnipiac Law’s new Mediation Clinic. Berta Holmes is the program’s Associate Director, who for many years was the eviction and foreclosure prevention program manager and housing mediator trainer at Community Mediation, Inc., in New Haven and Hamden, CT. Remaining HMMP staff include Mediation Clinic Fellow Jamie SaintPaul, QUSL JD, 2020, and a bilingual Mediation Client Services Coordinator, who will begin later this month.

A multi-disciplinary program, HMMP involves lawyers, mediators, and social workers working together to prevent homelessness. Holmes notes that mediation can have a role in helping address homelessness crisis because the nature of mediation allows for an even playing field, which empowers people.  She adds, mediation can be a better alternative than going to court because when a case does go to court, many tenants feel intimidated and powerless, and they are not willing to be open about their story.  

The most notable feature of HMMP is that students from the Law School’s Mediation Clinic will volunteer to be mediators or co-mediators for the program. HMMP’s Executive Director Brendan Holt says that the project will allow students to gain both academic and real-world experience and the students will be able to potentially bring innovative solutions to the homelessness problem.  Dean of the Law School, Jennifer Brown, notes that the program builds on to the school’s mission to nurture internal and local communities.  She also feels that the program will further enhance the student’s understanding of mediation and the complexities of business relationships, which she views as being central to becoming ethical and effective lawyers.