Postal Service Cuts Off SRO Tenants; Defies State and Local LawPaul Hogarthbyline‚ Jan. 08‚ 2009While a private mailbox is something apartment tenants take for granted, residential hotel (SRO) tenants have had to organize to win this right. In 2006, San Francisco passed the SRO Mailbox Ordinance – and since then, most non-profit residences have complied (although most private hotels are in violation.) In 2007, the legislature passed it at the state level. But the U.S. Postal Service (claiming federal preemption) now says they will cease delivering to individual mailboxes in SRO’s – except in hotels that installed them more than three months ago. This effectively shuts out tenants in the private-run SRO’s whose landlords have not complied with the law – ironically the same hotels with the worst habitability problems, the highest rates of vandalism and the most complaints of desk clerks stealing the mail. Landlords are being let “off the hook” because the law can’t be enforced, while the Postal Service – eager to cite their practice manual – won’t explain how their policies get changed. If we need a federal law requiring the Post Office to deliver mail to private hotel residents, SRO tenants will pursue that option. But that shouldn’t be necessary – as denying private mail delivery to SRO’s could violate federal equal protection. |