DeJane Caldwell logs, sorts, and hands out mail at So Others Might Eat, or SOME, a nonprofit organization helping people who are homeless in Washington, D.C.
“We get roughly 100 people coming here to check mail every day,” estimated Caldwell. “If you’re homeless and you’re battling addiction, stuff like that, I might not see them for a while. But when they do come, I like to have things for them.”
An average of 250,000 people lived on the streets of the U.S. every night last year. Hundreds of thousands more slept in shelters. Advocates say providing access to post office boxes could help many of them get back on their feet.
“Having an established address, an ID with an established address, allowed folks to be able to apply for stimulus checks, to apply or have somewhere to have their child support checks, income tax return checks,” said Ray Burley, the senior director of community resources at SOME. “Then folks would apply for birth certificates and social security cards and things like that.”
SOME launched its mail program during the COVID pandemic six years ago. It caught on very quickly, and now serves about 3,000 people, according to Burley.
“We recognized the need, and it has grown tremendously. Folks are able to receive Amazon packages, folks are able to receive medication, and we even do outgoing mail. If one of our mailroom participants show up and they have mail that they want to send out, but maybe they can’t afford a stamp, we’ll mail it for them.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is proposing a similar idea at a national level. He introduced The Mail Accessibility and Inclusion for Low-Income Families or MAIL Act, which proposes offering a free post office box to individuals experiencing homelessness or housing instability.
“A lot of people who are struggling with housing can’t access the mail. It’s hard to get a job when you can’t access mail. You can’t send your resume somewhere, you can’t pay your bills, you can’t get on your feet if you’re not able to get the medicine you need, which a lot of people rely on the mail to get their medicine. So I think this could be of great help,” said Schiff.
The legislation would foot the bill for the additional funding required to purchase and install these P.O. boxes. The Post Master General would submit to Congress the cost estimate for all of that and an estimate for lost revenue, and lawmakers would then appropriate those funds.
Burley said he thinks a federal program could make a difference in helping individuals to lift themselves out of homelessness. Until then, SOME will continue collecting and distributing mail to its clients.
“Some folks will receive their mail here for the duration. Some folks just need this address just to be able to move on to the next step,” said Burley. “That’s the name of the game, that’s what we are here to do: try to break the cycle of poverty, one individual at a time. And when folks establish that permanent address, it puts a smile on all of our faces when that happens.”
The Postal Service told Spectrum News it is aware of Schiff’s MAIL Act proposal, but a spokesperson did not share where the agency stood on the legislation.
Source: spectrumlocalnews.com
