Go back one year as the COVID-19 crisis was washing across the U.S. As deaths and sickness rose, the disastrous wake was unemployment and the resulting threat of homelessness.

In August of 2020, the Aspen Institute looked at each state’s economic future. It was predicted that Hawaii’s rental evictions would be between 46,000 and 76,000. Planners would be looking at a disastrous percentage of 24% to 43% of renters evicted.

Facing that crisis, federal and state help came first in simply forbidding evictions, and then in extra money in grants and other stipends for the unemployed or marginally employed.

The Associated Press reports that by the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent.

Landlords, of course, cannot go years without tenants paying rent, so the crisis touched both those renting and owning.

Now across the country, eviction halts are ending.

Here in Hawaii, eviction processes are permitted starting Friday.

State leaders are warning renters that now is the time for those who owe landlords money to figure out specifically how they will pay back what is owed.

At the same time that the eviction calendar ticks down, the state has been working to put together a plan to help.

In what appears to be a focused cooperation between the legislative and judicial branches, a plan was hatched.

“It is a terrific process in which landlords and tenants can work with a neutral third party to resolve their differences. The best-case scenario is to keep tenants in their units,” said Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald. At a state Capitol news conference, Gov. David Ige praised that plan, explaining that the changes to the landlord- tenant code allow renters access to mediation before eviction.

Stephen H. Levins, executive director of the Office of Consumer Protection, called it “a terrific scheme” that will keep residents in their homes, repay landlords and “prevent chaos in the courts.”

Maui Democratic Rep. Troy Hashimoto authored the bill and helped steer it through the Legislature. He said the aim was to help both renters and landlords.

Earlier the University of Hawaii estimated that 10,000 households were at least one month behind in paying their rent. Federal help has lowered those numbers.

The rates change by county with a sliding scale on federal assistance. For instance, a single person on Maui making less than $57,400 could get up to $2,500 in rental help if impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. On Oahu, one person earning less than $70,500 a year would be eligible for rental assistance.

Hashimoto said that will make a big difference in getting renters in a position to come up with a plan to pay back the rent they have not been able to pay.

What is key, Hashimoto said in an interview, is that renters ask to start a mediation process.

If that happens, a program to help bring some normalcy to Hawaii’s rental crisis is in sight.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.