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Over the past few decades the US Postal Service stopped front-porch letter delivery to Renton’s older homes, and installed these cluster mailboxes instead. As crime surges and mailboxes are repeatedly broken into, the US postal service is backing away from responsibility for maintaining them.
Every week or so I see a facebook post in which a hapless homeowner is trying to figure out how they can receive their mail after their neighborhood’s “cluster” mailbox has been pried open by thieves. Often they are being told by the US Postal Service that it is up to their neighborhood to repair or replace the mailbox cluster, even if there is no homeowner’s association, and no individual even has data on who is getting mail there.
The post office has all the information and resources needed to do it themselves of course, but they are looking for ways to shift the burden under this policy on mailboxes which increasingly declares these cluster mailboxes “privately owned”. This makes some sense for an apartment complex or a subdivision where the box maintenance was formally transferred to a home owners’ association. But in an older neighborhood where no one was ever in charge and homes were originally built with mail slots or porch-mounted boxes, the post office apparently created no plan for this repair or replacement. It takes a resident willing to sleuth out who receives their mail there, find contact information for everyone affected, confer with the postal service, hire a contractor, ensure proper permits are in place, pay for the equipment and the installation in advance, collect funds for reimbursement, and somehow get keys to everyone impacted and to the post office. If one of the neighbors is a retired contractor, engineer or architect, with good cash reserves, good people skills and no language barriers, they can get this job done in a few months. If instead the neighborhood is comprised of people with full-time jobs, without extra cash or time on their hands, it can be hard to get this task done.
Most neighborhoods can eventually find someone to step up to this role once, but now some mailboxes are being broken into repeatedly, and neighbors are growing weary of fixing them. As US mail has become less relevant, with far more bulk-advertisements than personal content, some neighborhoods are taking longer to find someone willing to step up even if they have the time, skills, and money to do so.
Some local social media users have vented frustration that the Federal Government sets tampering with the mail as a felony, yet seemingly does very little locally to investigate these crimes or help the crime victims. From their perspective, the post office moved the mailbox off their porch, put it where it can’t be surveilled from their home, aren’t protecting it, and they’re now telling homeowners it’s the homeowener’s job to find out who else uses it and pay to fix it.
I’ve heard some neighborhoods have been successful at getting the post office to fix these boxes, while others have had to do it themselves. I personally have not found a specific federal policy that helps sort this out, and I suspect individual post office managers may be making judgement calls on who gets helped. (If someone has more information on this please leave it in the comments).
My view is that the post office should uniformly take responsibility for the boxes that they installed, or get used to the idea that an increasing number of homeowners will simply give up on receiving regular US Mail deliveries. That will be the next step toward the end for the US postal service as we’ve known it for centuries– a sad day indeed.
I’ve not previously seen this story covered by a local news outlet, but a Houston, Texas news source covered it here. Apparently it’s the same across the US. I agree with Houston author Amy Davis, especially where she says, “it’s a real cluster.”
I think that the USPS needs to rethink this. The choice of the homeowners is to go back to putting individual boxes on their property, thus forcing the USPS to spend more time delivering to more locations than required with using these boxes. Myself I am seriously thinking I should have replaced my box with a locking box but left it at the edge of my property. These multi resident boxes are not only located on the right of way but usually where people need to walk to them, this is assisting the USPS not the individual and should be taken care of by USPS.
I got lucky with this solution at my home Dave, because I purchased the home with a rural-style mailbox at the street next to our driveway. After mail was stolen, I replaced it with a locking version. If it gets broken I’ll replace it again without the organizational challenges of a cluster box.
I went through this whole process a few years ago. The developer originally installed interior grade mailboxes and put a small roof over them. They were fine for 20 years and then the theft started and we replaced it with a sturdier exterior pedestal unit – no break-ins since.
I bought it and collected money (split evenly) for the new box. I had to coordinate with the Postmaster a time for him to come out and install the locks and take the master key (this was free) – there was no permit required and I installed it myself. Having the USPS on the hook for every mailbox isn’t feasible.
Additionally, the USPS requires new developments and buildings to submit their plans for mail delivery for approval during the “addressing” process.
Thanks Dan for the input, and for helping your neighborhood with this improvement. Your neighbors are lucky to have you as a neighbor. If you get a chance, for the benefit of readers that are in the same position you were in, can you further elaborate on the steps you took, how you got it done, and any lessons learned? Also, is there a mailbox cluster that you found to be of high quality that you recommend?
Our neighborhood is presently going through this. We installed a new cluster box (had one installed), and we’ve been waiting three weeks with just chirps now for the USPS to come install the master locks on it. The regional USPS person emails the highlands branch reminding them and they don’t even reply.
Adding on – it was a replacement of an existing cluster box (the previous one was damaged beyond repair during an apparent attempted break in).
Thanks for the comment and information about your experience Kjell. It helps others understand what they may need to prepare for. Frustrating that there is a three week delay for keying. I hope yours gets finished soon, and that it does not happen again!
Yeah I saw the link to this on Nextdoor and thought it relevant – nice site. I’ll post here when they do or don’t install the locks either about hey they’re installed or venting that they’re still not.
Also, so yeah I’m in an HOA and on the board and the post office told us no you fix it. It really has been a learning process. So then one realizes hmmm well the post office must be involved somehow – as they have locks that only they can access. So the line they give you about you being responsible – it’s actually both. At the least, they still come by and do the master locks. Supposedly.
One more thing – when you go to the post office and ask, they act like you can just fix the whole thing yourself, and then the mail will just flow again. No, they at least do the master and parcel locks, and the whole process is just downright mysterious. But it shouldn’t be.
At our location, a while back someone misplaced the keys to the package box, since then the Postman has been stopping by and delivering packages (that don’t fit into the individual mailboxes) to the homes.