Post office boxes become free for homeless and unstably housed people.
S. 5070 — MAIL Act · Filed by Adam Schiff (D-CA) · Introduced Jul 22, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill tells the U.S. Postal Service to give free boxes to people without homes. People with unstable housing can also get them. The government will pay USPS back for lost money and new boxes. People must meet income and program rules to qualify.
Who it affects
People without homes or with unstable housing gain a mailing address. This helps them get jobs, benefits, healthcare, and legal help. Taxpayers pay for it through money given to USPS.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say if people can use the box address for benefits or jobs. How the program works will depend on rules made later.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jul 22, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 22, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- unstable housing — Not having a stable place to live or risk of losing your home soon.
- income — Money a person earns from work or other sources.
- mailing address — A location where mail can be sent and received for a person.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (5,494 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
“Post office boxes become free for homeless and unstably housed people.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5070/simple Report an error