Mayor Gavin Newson advocates for SRO residents to have their mail sorted. Until now SROs have received a single bulk drop of mail leaving busy workers to sort or not sort at all. Receiving mail plays a large role in finding jobs and resources.
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Mayors Push for Postage
Newsom: Hotel residents should get mail service
Mayor Gavin Newsom said Thursday there is “no excuse” for the U.S. Postal Service’s policy of not sorting mail for single-room-occupancy hotel residents who have lived in their rooms for more than 30 days.
The mayor said The Examiner report on SRO tenant concerns was the first he’d heard of the issue, and it’s one he’d like to see resolved through city policy and at the federal level.
“They should be afforded the same right to receive mail as anyone else; that makes sense,” Newsom said. “I think it only makes sense that someone who has residency is afforded something that frankly I took for granted.”
Following an entreaty Wednesday by concerned tenants, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi promised to open a congressional inquiry into mail practices at SROs, and the Postal Service is also looking into the complaints.
More than 30,000 San Franciscans live in The City’s 457 single-room hotels, which Newsom has made a central element of his plan to house The City’s homeless population.
The mayor said the 1,000 people his Care Not Cash program intends to transition out of homelessness and into SROS this year need to have secure mail delivery for job seeking and communicating with families.
Currently, mail is delivered in bulk only, leaving busy desk clerks to sort-or not sort-the envelopes. The Postal Service also does not provide mail forwarding services for the SROS, complicating the lives of people who move elsewhere.
Trent Rhorer, director of the Human Services Department that oversees Care Not Cash, said he’s working with Pelosi’s office and believes The City should require that mailbesorted at city-funded SROS.
Newsom said he’d like to see future contracts require that building owners install mailboxes for tenants, as found in traditional apartment buildings.
“This is an easy thing for us to request, and I think it’s a good suggestion,” Newsom said.
