Preserve Strong Communities with Housing Mediation

Carla and Lucila ended up in mediation with the Center for Conflict Resolution when Carla filed an eviction case against Lucila. Carla and Lucila are sisters; Lucila moved into Carla’s home after moving back to Chicago when she lost her job as a consequence of the pandemic two years ago.

When Lucila moved in, Carla told her that she could live there without paying rent until she found a new job. In exchange, Lucila offered to help around the house and run errands for Carla. Carla was working two jobs and thought that having her sister’s help would make things better at home. During the first year and a half, the agreement went as planned and things were great. Everything changed when Lucila started bringing people to the house and having parties without Carla’s permission. Chores and support around the house were not getting done, causing stress on Carla, who was working full time and taking care of everyone.

Lucila would get defensive every time Carla tried to talk to her about the subject, so Carla gave Lucila an ultimatum: she told her that she needed to start paying half of the rent and get a job as soon as possible or move out. A couple of months went by and the two sisters stop talking to each other and avoided any type of contact with one another. Carla would come home very late and would leave very early in order to not see Lucila. Lucila stopped throwing parties, but for Carla that wasn’t enough -she wanted her sister to start helping with rent. After not getting any rent money for months, Carla decided to file an eviction case against her sister.

After hearing their stories, the mediator remarked that it sounded like Carla and Lucila had a very good relationship in the past. The mediator asked if the relationship had deteriorated because of the rent situation or if there had been something more. Carla shared that she felt that her sister was taking advantage of her; Carla had done everything in her power to help Lucila out and in return Lucila disrespected her by bringing strangers to her house, playing loud music while she was trying to sleep and not helping around the house as she used to do when she first moved in. Carla also expressed that she was hurt and disappointed by Lucila’s actions. Lucila never apologized, and instead she just told Carla that she needed to relax and have more fun.

After hearing her sister, Lucila apologized to her. She had not been aware that her actions had such an impact on her sister. Lucila was grateful to Carla for everything she had done for her. Lucila explained that moving back to Chicago was very hard for her. She left Chicago 25 years ago and the only person she knew in the city was her sister, so when she moved back she made a point to start making friends and expand her social circle and that’s why she had people over. Lucila admitted that it had never crossed her mind that the parties would cost her the relationship with her sister. Lucila also wanted her sister to know that she had been actively looking for a job, went to several interviews and that she finally got a job at CTA about a month ago, right around the time she received the eviction notice.

After hearing Lucila’s sincere apology, and having some assurance that Lucila could make rent payments in the future, Carla agreed that Lucila could continue to live there and would not have to move out.

By creating a safe space for the parties to share with each other what was happening for each of them, the mediator gave the sisters an opportunity to restart their relationship. Carla and Lucila ended up writing an agreement where Lucila agreed to start paying for half of the rent. The sisters also came out of the mediation with a plan around house rules and how they could better support each other moving forward. Carla agreed to drop the case against her sister and the two left the mediation with a stronger relationship than they had enjoyed in years.