In keeping with that tradition, Sunnyvale's Project Sentinel watches over the owners and residents of the more than 53,000 housing units in Sunnyvale to provide counseling, social services and mediation for landlords, tenants and inexperienced homeowners.

According to the 2000 census, half of Sunnyvale's homes are rental units.

With more than 130,000 people occupying those homes, problems are bound to arise, whether they involve finding affordable housing for single-parent families or resolving landlord-tenant disputes.

"Fair housing is a requirement for the city, so instead of having staff trying to implement that service, we contract with Project Sentinel to provide the service to our residents," said Annabel Yurutucu, Sunnyvale housing officer.

Project Sentinel receives almost $135,000 from the city of Sunnyvale every year to provide fair housing services, such as discrimination issues and below-market housing searches, as well as landlord-

tenant dispute resolution, which usually focuses on battles over money.

Project Sentinel is also funded through the Dispute Resolution Programs Act, which takes a portion of court document filing fees and uses them to support alternative mediation programs.

"Our bread-and-butter is security deposit disputes," said Eduardo Legorreta, Project Sentinel deputy director of dispute resolution programs.

The Stanford Mid-Peninsula Urban Coalition started Project Sentinel in 1976, and it became an independent nonprofit agency in 1991. For more than a decade, Project Sentinel's Sunnyvale operations have helped local residents and landlords settle disputes and learn about their rights.

In 2005, former Sunnyvale resident Marion--who asked that her full name not be used--needed help dealing with harassment from her landlord. According to Marion, the landlord wanted to take money out of a cleaning deposit for costs that were not associated with cleaning and maintenance.

"I wasn't sure who to go to or what to do, but the previous owner--who I had become friends with--told me to go see Ed (Legorreta)," Marion said. "At the time I was going through that mess, he was my rock. He gave me the strength to deal with it."

Marion said she and the landlord met for more than three months with Legorreta and mediators to settle the issue. Sentinel contracts with independent mediators.

"That's one of the key parts of the program; we hear the clients' wishes," Legorreta said. "It's self-empowering for the participants; they feel a sense of ownership in the resolution."

According to Martin Eichner, Project Sentinel's director of dispute resolution programs, getting landlords and tenants together and having them work together is key to the program's success.

Eichner said there is a 95 percent compliance rate when mediation is successful. Another key part is that both sides often agree to meet, without needing to be formally ordered to do so by a judge. When both sides agree, Eichner said mediation is successful 75 percent of the time. There is only a 45 percent success rate when mediation is not voluntary.

Because Project Sentinel is a relatively small operation, many residents don't know it's there. Some find their way to it through other organizations. Sunnyvale Community Services case manager Jose Hernandez said his agency refers people to Project Sentinel for help, but also get referrals from the program.

"Many of our clients don't know their rights or are scared to say anything, and they come to us saying 'this happened,' or 'that happened,' and we refer them over to Project Sentinel," Hernandez said.

Because Project Sentinel offers only education, counseling and other similar services, it refers people to Sunnyvale Community Services for such things as emergency food or rent money.

"We trade clients with each other. It's a mutual respect, a mutual admiration," Hernandez said.

Sentinel services also intersect with the police because some cases may involve violence or property damage.

"The potential for violence or litigation is present in all these cases; that's why the police cross over a lot on our cases," Eichner said.

In addition to mediation, the program also does extensive work on fair housing issues, including helping residents find affordable housing and avoid illegal housing discrimination.

"There's a very, very large demand for affordable housing, particularly rental housing, and that's even with the rental market down in the last few years," Eichner said.

Still, Legorreta said the most common service is education because landlords and tenants are often unintentionally ignorant of the laws governing their interactions.

One Sunnyvale landlord, who asked to remain anonymous, said she has worked with Project Sentinel to handle disputes for 12 years.

"The educational process--regardless of which side you're on--is invaluable," she said.

She also said it helped to have staff members ready to help bridge cultural and language barriers to reach resolutions.

"For me and most of the people I know, we have a lot of Spanish-speaking tenants who just don't known the laws and the rules," she said. "So it helps having someone like Eduardo around who is bilingual and accessible."

For his part, Legorreta said while it was often difficult to help people who were out of work, out of money and seemingly out of luck, being able to help them made it worthwhile.

"Every time you help someone directly, you've empowered them to do something, because until them came to you, they were standing still, waiting to get run over," Legorreta said.