COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – The US Postal Services’ new designation for several Bryan-College Station apartments as student housing continues to fuel anger and confusion among residents and managers alike.
Elisa Ycaguirre is the assistant manager at the Vibe and the Atrium apartments. These were a couple of the buildings identified by USPS as “student housing,” and with management unable to accept and sort mail for each resident, they’ve been told mail will be available for pick up at the post office.
This was until residents began hearing that might not be the case anymore. Apartment dwellers told KBTX post office employees notified them any mail addressed to the complexes required to pick up mail at the post office would not be able to anymore. Instead, they would have to purchase a PO box or have their mail sent to a trusted address.
“Everybody’s frustrated. Everybody’s upset,” Ycaguirre said. “Most of our residents get all of their medications through the mail, especially our elderly residents. They live paycheck to paycheck, and they don’t have vehicles. So, all of their medicines, all of their important documents, get mailed to them. Because of this, now they have to find a way to go to the post office and pick up their mail, their medicine. We also have residents who have sick kids… I have a resident who gets at least four packages of baby formula for her special needs kid a week. All of that’s going to be pushed back, and, you know, it just makes it harder on everybody.”
What’s more is the apartment said the change may impact its ability to lease. Just last week, Ycaguirre said a group came into the leasing office to check out an apartment. After finding out about the mail delivery system, they left.
“We do need everybody’s help to try to fight this because it’s very urgent,” pleaded Ycaguirre.
KBTX reached out to USPS’ Southern Area Corporate Communications on Wednesday with three questions.
- A complete list of apartment complexes in Bryan and College Station the USPS considers student housing
- Whether those residents at impacted complexes are able to continue picking up their mail at the post office without a PO box
- A more detailed response on how the USPS is identifying a complex as student housing
This last question specifically asks for additional details. In the past, the USPS has answered this, saying student apartments are “single or multi-room units that may share or have access to centrally located kitchens, bathrooms, showers, or social or common areas.” KBTX asked for clarification on how a student population is identified at these complexes.
In fact, the numerous times KBTX has covered stories related to these USPS changes, none have been students.
“All of the sudden, after all these decades that the post office can utilize on their own, that this is student housing is beyond belief,” Steve Smith, a College Station resident, said.
As a retired professor of Texas A&M University, Smith said he’s lived in the same apartment unit for almost 40 years. When the USPS announced its classification changes, he said management at his apartment built an entire mail room to take on the responsibility of passing out mail for residents. Smith says this is something he’s grateful for, but he doesn’t understand the change, now calling his home “student housing.”
“We have families, we have retirees like myself. It’s just an ordinary kind of apartment complex, and that’s how it’s been for the 38 years I have lived here… All of a sudden, I found out I’m practically living in a dorm and, like, nothing has changed except what the post office didn’t want to have to deliver to each individual box,” added Smith.
KBTX notified USPS Communications on Wednesday about the requested information, then followed up on Thursday and Friday. The postal service said it is working on the request but did not specify when the information is expected.
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