The Boston City Council is raising the alarm over what some members describe as inadequate mail delivery by the United States Postal Service in several Boston neighborhoods, in potential violation of federal law.
Boston City Councilors Sharon Durkan, Henry Santana, and Ben Weber filed an emergency hearing order during Wednesday’s regular council meeting to investigate complaints they’ve heard from residents all over the city reporting issues with USPS service.
Durkan told her colleagues that after working with US Senator Ed Markey to prevent the closure of a USPS location in Mission Hill earlier this summer, she began to hear reports that people in the neighborhood weren’t getting their mail.
“The United States Code clearly states that the Postal Service shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to all patrons in all areas, and shall render postal services to all communities,” Durkan said. “Yet for many in Mission Hill, this promise rings hollow. Residents are missing critical communications, including legal and financial documents. Some of our most vulnerable neighbors are not receiving vital medications on time.”
Santana, who serves as an at-large member of the council, added he’s been hearing complaints from residents in Mission Hill, Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Brighton for months, who say their mail is being delivered late or not arriving at all. Several other councilors also mentioned they’ve been hearing similar reports for years.
“This is an issue of fairness and equity,” Santana said. “We can not allow certain communities to be underserved while others continue to benefit from the reliable postal services. Our residents deserve better, and we are here to demand answers and action to restore full service to these neighborhoods.”
Weber said the issue is especially concerning considering the upcoming November election.
“More and more people are voting by mail,” he said. “We need every vote to count, we need to make sure our Postal Service is working correctly.”
Richard Giordano, a Mission Hill resident for more than 30 years, said infrequent mail delivery has been an issue in his neighborhood for about two years but has gotten significantly worse in the past six months.
Giordano frequently hears about neighbors not receiving bills on time, or only a day before they’re due. Just two days ago, he and his wife received some bills that dated back to July — a problem considering he still pays his bills by mailing in checks.
“I don’t want to switch over to payments online, because, you know, I actually believe in the post office,” Giordano said. “I want to use the post office, I know people need the post office for all sorts of reasons.”
He especially hopes Massachusetts’ members of Congress will get involved in what he sees as a federal problem, caused by the leadership of US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
“It’s a terrible problem on Mission Hill, it’s a problem in Boston, it’s a problem nationwide,” Giordano said. “It’s not the mail carriers. They’re all very committed to doing what they can do with the fact that ... this is a structural, systematic problem based on the current Postmaster General DeJoy. He’s gone ahead and dismantled some of the mass sorting machines and the systems they had in place, all with an idea, I think, of destabilizing mail delivery.”
At the end of August, Markey and Senator Elizabeth Warren, along with eight other members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation, sent a letter to DeJoy to demand an in-person meeting with the USPS’ Massachusetts and Rhode Island District Manager Scott Manier over their concerns with USPS service across the state.
They listed several problems, including post office closures in Medway and Watertown and lost mail and delays in Roxbury, Somerville, Brookline, and other communities. The lawmakers also emphasized their objection to USPS’ new proposal to consolidate processing centers and delay mail delivery in rural areas.
“All these issues with postal service in the Commonwealth are highly problematic and indicative of a larger statewide problem, which has fostered inequitable access to basic postal functions across urban and rural communities,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter, citing a recent report that Massachusetts is among the worst 10 states for on-time mail delivery. “Our requests for a response and assistance from USPS have gone unaddressed and ignored. That is unacceptable.”
The lawmakers requested a response to their letter by Sept. 30.
The Boston City Council’s emergency hearing on the issue, which has not yet been scheduled, will provide an opportunity for the council to hear directly from impacted residents and businesses, investigate the causes of the service issues, and workshop potential solutions to fix the problems, Durkan said.
The USPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com. Follow her @nikigriswold.