Hi! I’m Madhawa “Mads” Palihapitiya, an evaluator, researcher, and lecturer at UMass Boston and the Principal Investigator on an evaluation of a housing diversion mediation program aiming to increase housing stability in Massachusetts, which I’m discussing here.
The complexity of the eviction crisis coupled with multiple needs of tenants at risk of eviction and homelessness create unique challenges that only a coordinated, multipronged approach involving many state, federal, and community assets can tackle. Such complexity demands that evaluators focus on both needs/gaps and assets, particularly at the community level that are often overlooked in a deficit focused approach.
The deficiency model in needs assessment can affect the self-determination of communities and reinforce the power gap between service recipients and service providers. We started in the Fall of 2020 to identify housing mediation needs to underline the importance of investing in existing community dispute resolution assets. The strategy was to use storytelling approaches using qualitative interviews with landlords, tenants, mediators, and case coordinators. We used these qualitative narratives to create case studies, mini case studies and vignettes that revealed the nuances of the services provided while grounding the evaluation in people’s lived experiences. We combined needs assessments with asset mapping for better, more implementable results.
Lessons Learned
Story-telling approaches. While its common practice to use two-scale or three-scale surveys in our needs assessments, it is also important to include case studies and story-telling approaches in your toolbox. We found that these engagements allow tenants to truly express their sentiments about government and non-profit services. Check out these story-telling approaches.
Power imbalances. A power differential between landlords and tenants, with the latter defaulting on rent payments exacerbates discrepancies in parties’ level of relevant knowledge and negotiating capacity. Tenants with less bargaining power need assistance from housing counselors, mediators, and other community-based assets. Evaluators must inventory these assets while identifying needs and gaps to create a better and much more coordinated response to the eviction crisis.
Financial assistance. Financial assistance from Federal and State agencies to pay back rent often brought parties to the negotiating table. However, for tenants facing eviction and in distress, government procedures were even more confusing. However, bounded services like the EDI (Eviction Diversion Initiative) in Massachusetts, coupled with community mediators and housing counselors willing to work with parties to help navigate the systems resulted in more people applying for and receiving financial assistance. A key takeaway for evaluators is to engage end-users in their evaluations to identify needs and gaps that only the end-users will experience.
Assets. The evaluation clearly demonstrates how, as a proven conflict management approach, mediation delivered through community-based dispute resolution mechanisms is addressing landlord-tenant conflict, improving communication, and aiding in the development of creative solutions to housing issues like non-payment of rent and thereby, assisting parties in avoiding evictions or managing some harms that maybe caused by those evictions like homelessness and emergency shelter use, and increasing housing stability. However, these services, which are offered free, are still underutilized, and more work is needed to increase public awareness.
The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Needs Assessment (NA) TIG Week with our colleagues in the NA AEA Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from our NA TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.
Hello Mads,
My name is Matan BenYishay and I am the Director of Program Evaluation at Pine Street Inn in Boston, where we work to end homelessness. It is fascinating to learn about this upstream intervention, which we are always trying to promote, and about the role of evaluation in it. I would love to be in touch about your findings if you would be willing. My email is mbenyishay@pinestreetinn.org. Thank you for this story!