In a move to ensure that residents of single-room residential occupancy hotels get their mail, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera is preparing for a lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service. The hotels are home to many low-income San Franciscans, including LGBTs.

In January, the postal service in San Francisco stopped delivering mail individually to many SRO residents, potentially leaving people's mail open to being misdirected or stolen.

Herrera said in a statement that undelivered mail has included checks, medical notices, appointment information, and personal letters. He told the Bay Area Reporter that the practice is "a direct threat" to SRO residents' health and safety.

"I think it's incredibly important we do whatever possible to ensure that some of our most vulnerable citizens are getting the individualized mail service they deserve and that they had been receiving," he told the B.A.R.

In 2006, the city enacted the Residential Hotel Mail Receptacle Ordinance, which requires SRO owners to make arrangements for installing mail receptacles for each unit.

In a December 2008 letter to Vivian Day, then-acting director of the Department of Building Inspection, San Francisco Postmaster Noemi Luna wrote that postal regulations "provide that single point service is the appropriate mode of delivery for mail addressed to persons in 'hotels, schools, and similar places.'"

Under single point delivery, mail is delivered "in bulk to building management," which is then responsible for distribution, she wrote.

Luna also wrote that her agency had extended delivery to individualized receptacles at some SROs, "which under postal service regulations was inconsistent with our policies." Luna added that federal law "preempts the application of non-federal laws that frustrate or interfere with the operations of the postal service."

Citing "fiscal shortages," she wrote that the postal service would no longer deliver mail to individual receptacles in SROs, except at buildings that had been getting individual delivery for more than 90 days.

James Wigdel, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, said he couldn't provide comment, citing a possible pending legal matter.

In his statement, Herrera charged that the "discriminatory" mail delivery practice in San Francisco is outlawed by U.S. Postal Service regulations and violates constitutional guarantees, such as residents' First Amendment right to receive their mail.

"Mail service is not a privilege for the wealthy, and the San Francisco postmaster's decision to cut costs by treating SRO tenants differently than other city residents is unfair and cruel," Herrera said in the statement. 

In a demand letter dated April 16 and sent to the U.S. Attorney's office, which was requested by an official in that office, Herrera outlined the basis for his intended lawsuit and gave the postal service two weeks to bring its mail delivery policy at SROs in line with the policy for other residential apartment buildings. If that deadline's not met, Herrera will file suit in federal court on May 1.

One resident who said she's been affected by the mail policy is Kendra Stewardson, a 58-year-old transsexual woman who lives in an SRO hotel in the city's Tenderloin neighborhood.

Stewardson said that currently the letter carrier delivers the mail to the front desk, and the desk clerk distributes the mail to individual "cubbyholes."

She said the problem is that "quite often" the clerk doesn't put the mail into the right slot.

Stewardson, a disabled Vietnam veteran who said she has post-traumatic stress disorder, said she was to have an evaluation for her disability pension, which she's hoping will increase. She said she gets about $960 a month from the Veterans Administration – her entire income.

She said she didn't get a letter from the Veterans Administration telling her that her appointment was on January 15 until more than a week after the appointment. She said the letter had been postmarked January 13.

"I've been trying desperately to get another appointment, and I think they were a little angry with me for missing the first one," said Stewardson.

She said she finally got a new appointment for April 30 – three and a half months after her initial appointment.

"We're the ones that really can't afford to miss our mail. It's that simple," Stewardson said of people who are in situations similar to hers. "Until my pension goes up, I'm kind of stuck. ... I can barely get by."