ATLANTA — Several people in the English Avenue community in Northwest Atlanta have been reaching out to 11Alive, frustrated that mail service has seemingly stopped in their area for weeks now.
"It's frustrating because every day: 'did the mailman come? Did the mailman come?'" explained resident Renee Sanders. "No mailman."
Sanders said most of her neighborhood hasn't seen mail delivery since December.
"Checks are supposed to come, bills are supposed to come," Sanders explained.
Another resident, Monica Mendoza, said it's even putting some people's lives at risk.
"There's a lot of senior citizens in the area, and they're all getting medications through the mail," she explained. "So, if you, as a post office say, you don't have anyone to deliver the mail, how are they going to get their medication?"
Sanders said she's gone to the post office three times, but still hasn't gotten any answers - or any of her mail.
"The lady told it was in the back in a bin. Then, she told me I didn't have any mail. She said someone was out delivering. And when I got home no one ever showed up," Sanders recounted.
She added they've heard vague claims that it's because of crime in the area, but they haven't gotten any concrete information from the US Postal Service.
"They need to come up with a strategy and be honest about it and just give us our mail," Mendoza said.
11Alive reached out to USPS multiple times, thought it did not answer our specific questions pertaining to the problems in the English Avenue community. They would only say they've been dealing with employee shortages, winter storms in the Northeast, and the challenge of moving historic volumes of mail.
Their full statement is below:
“The United States Postal Service delivered a record number of holiday packages for the American people under somEnglish Avenue communitye of the most difficult circumstances we’ve faced in the past century — specifically more than 1.1 billion packages were delivered this holiday season amidst a global pandemic.
Throughout the peak season, the Postal Service, along with the broader shipping sector, faced pressure on service performance across categories as it managed through a record of volume while also overcoming employee shortages due to the ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases, winter storms in the Northeast, as well as ongoing capacity challenges with airlifts and trucking for moving historic volumes of mail.
We appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding as our service standards continue to normalize.”
11Alive asked when English Avenue residents when they might start getting their daily mail delivered again, but the USPS did not give an answer. We will keep pressing for answers and solutions.