Phoenix Mail Room for Homeless People Loses Funding — ProPublica

Carl Steiner walked to the window of a small gray building near downtown Phoenix and gave a worker his name. He stepped away with a box and a cellphone bill.

The box is what Steiner had come for: It contained black and red Reebok sneakers to use in his new warehouse job.

Steiner doesn’t have a permanent address. His letters and packages are delivered to a mail room for homeless people in the building at the Keys to Change campus, a collaborative of 15 nonprofit organizations that serve those like him.

He and thousands of others have received mail here for years. They use the address for job applications, for medication, to receive benefits like food stamp cards and even to vote. And for 20 years, the U.S. Postal Service provided at least 20% of the mail room’s budget.

But last month, the postal service ended its support of $24,000 a year because a nearby post office is “able to fully serve the community,” a spokesperson said in a statement to ProPublica.

Unlike a standard post office, Keys to Change allows people to receive mail without a government ID, a common problem for some who are homeless.

This year, Keys to Change will spend about $117,000 to help 7,000 people get their mail. Although the cost is minimal relative to the nonprofit’s budget, it’s a “crucial part” of helping people exit homelessness, said Amy Schwabenlender, the organization’s CEO.

“It really is a priceless thing that we can offer to our clients,” Schwabenlender said.

The loss of support from the Postal Service comes at a time of uncertainty for one of Arizona’s largest nonprofit homeless services providers and similar organizations nationwide. Keys to Change says it will seek donations to keep the mail room open.

But there will be less money for such services as President Donald Trump and his administration take a very different approach to homelessness than his predecessors.

Trump is calling for large reductions to assistance grants, as well as their restructuring. More than half of Keys to Change’s funding comes from government agreements, Schwabenlender said.

The president has also issued an executive order urging cities to remove people who live outdoors by enforcing camping bans and institutionalizing those experiencing mental health or substance use disorders. The order also calls for ending support for programs that prioritize housing and services.

With funding shifting to support a more punitive approach to homelessness, even small programs like the mail room could be strained. The loss of the Postal Service’s assistance is not related to these budget cuts, but for providers it leaves one more gap to fill. Some, like Keys to Change, said they’ll be forced to do more with less federal support as demand for assistance is increasing.

Record numbers of people are looking for help. Last year, Keys to Change served 20,000 people, up from 18,000 the year before, according to the organization, which is also seeing the loss of COVID-era relief funding.

“There’s a definite air of uncertainty and fear, and that is both amongst providers and among people experiencing homelessness,” said Donald Whitehead, the executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit organization that advocates for homeless people. Whitehead expects some of the Trump administration’s changes will increase, not reduce, the number of people on the street.

Joe Medina has worked in the mail room since 2019 and knows some of the people he serves by name.

A former client at Keys to Change, he started as a volunteer doing odd jobs on the campus before moving into a full-time job in the mail room.

On a recent Friday, he meticulously sorted letters into alphabetized bins.

Paul Babcock approached the mail room window and handed Medina an identification card.

But Medina immediately recognized Babcock and handed him a package.

“Thanks, I’ll see you again soon,” said Babcock, who has been homeless on and off since 2012 and used the mail room for all of that time. Babcock opened his delivery to find a sweatshirt. For the cold weather, he said.

Babcock said having an address has helped him while he lives on the streets. He has received mail from the Social Security Administration, replacement identification cards about five times and chocolate chip cookies from his mother. “I’ve gotten everything from here,” Babcock said.

When people don’t retrieve their mail, Medina sometimes tells others to put the word out so they know to come get it.

“The ones who are coming for their mail are doing something for themselves, no matter how small,” Medina said. Some visit multiple times a day hoping for a letter or a package, he said. But sometimes they leave disappointed.

Medina greeted a woman by name, before retreating to check the bins. “Nothing right now,” he told her.

In 2009, the Postal Service threatened to cut its funding for the mail room, according to reporting by the Arizona Republic. The contract had come up for review because the location doesn’t generate revenue. “We’ve been giving them a donation, and we can no longer do that,” a postal official told the newspaper at the time.

The Postal Service reduced its funding but didn’t eliminate it and said it would create a “public service” contract for the homeless services provider. It’s unclear if it moved forward with that plan. The latest Keys to Change mail room contract appears unchanged from the 2009 agreement, according to Schwabenlender.

A Postal Service spokesperson declined to comment on the terms of the mail room agreement, calling such contracts “confidential.”

When Postal Service officials contacted the Keys to Change in May to inform the organization that the contract would end, they said the agreement “requires financial transactions that include revenue generation,” according to emails provided to ProPublica.

In Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, more people are entering homelessness than leaving. For every 19 new people experiencing homelessness, 10 people find housing, according to a regional nonprofit that coordinates homeless services.

After Tammy Mcauley left an abusive relationship, her car broke down, causing her to lose her job as a housekeeper. She’s been homeless for a year and most recently lived in a shelter.

She walked up to retrieve her mail with her dog, Mousie, perched in a stroller.

“It makes it so that we can still be people,” Mcauley said of the service.

Later that day, a FedEx truck pulled up to the mail room. The driver dropped off two boxes from Walmart.

Medina knew who they were for and set them aside until they came to get them.