Excerpt from Yiddish article in Der Yid’s Friday,
September 6, 2019 edition.
Hundreds of residents at 51 Ross Street are suffering from the suspension of their mail delivery. UJO has intervened on the residents behalf and continues to work with the housing management and USPS to allow mail delivery to be reinstated.
Hundreds of residents at 51 Ross Street are suffering from the suspension of their mail delivery. UJO has intervened on the residents behalf and continues to work with the housing management and USPS to allow mail delivery to be reinstated.
Brooklyn, NY – Williamsburg residents at 51 Ross Street,
which is a part of the Taylor White and Independence Project, have been without
regular mail delivery service for over two weeks. The lack of mail delivery is
due to the building’s inoperable postal service door resulting in the USPS
being unable to complete delivery to the building’s residents.
Upon
hearing of the untenable situation, UJO intervened. UJO contacted resident
management, the postal service and elected officials including Councilmember
Velazquez about resolving the issue as quickly as possible. In the meantime
mail was made available for pickup at the post office. Initially, residents
were only able to pick up their mail on Wednesdays and Saturdays. This provided
a severely limited window of opportunity for Sabbath observers. Making the necessary
arrangements to pick up the mail with only one day as an option for them was
especially hard for seniors and homebound individuals. This resulted in concern
over the chance of missing critical letters which might lead to the
discontinuation of important social service benefits. Velazquez
responded by securing an additional day for pickup of the mail at the post
office.
Unfortunately, due to continued baffling bureaucracy and
miscommunication, as of the moment of this writing, the door has yet to be
repaired. After UJO’s intervention, the broken
door was replaced. The new door though was missing the unique lock for the postal
worker to use his key to open it and deliver residents’ mail. Although the USPS
did come down to install their unique lock in the new door, they were unable to
complete their mission as the new door did not have the hole to insert the lock
into. As a result, UJO has been in touch with the New York City Housing Authority to
request they cut necessary hole to facilitate the installation of the
lock.
In the name of the building’s residents, UJO expresses
appreciation to Councilmember Velazquez for her responsiveness and direct invention
in this matter. UJO remains hopeful that the mailing situation will be resolved within the upcoming week.
