Mail delivery suspended at Del Rey public housing complex with over 1,800 residents

Daisy Vega, president of the resident advisory council at the Mar Vista Gardens public housing complex, said having to pick up mail off site is especially difficult for elderly residents.(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

by: Los Angeles Times

Posted: Aug 28, 2020 / 09:37 AM PDT

Updated: Aug 28, 2020 / 09:37 AM PDT

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Mail delivery has been suspended at Mar Vista Gardens, a public housing complex with more than 1,800 tenants in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Del Rey, forcing residents to pick up mail and packages at a Culver City facility over a mile away.

Culver City Post Office Postmaster Roderick Strong told officials at the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles this week that mail delivery was immediately being put on hold because of safety issues at the 43-acre housing complex.

Strong had previously cited safety issues as a reason to set up centralized banks of mailboxes at Mar Vista Gardens instead of delivering mail to each door, an idea that troubled residents of the complex. Tenant leaders had raised concerns about voting in the upcoming elections and questioned why the same changes were not happening in wealthier areas.

In a Wednesday email to city staffers, Strong said that after two incidents reported by postal employees this week — one involving a threatening tenant, another an “uncontrollable dog” — he was suspending mail delivery to Mar Vista Gardens until the new, centralized banks of mailboxes are set up at the housing complex.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.