My coworker's grandmother was in her 90's. She had to complete paperwork and get something from her doctor stating that she was unable to safely walk across her large front yard to the mailbox at the street. Post office approved to have it delivered to her door!
Hardship" or "Medical Problems" is defined as an illness or handicap which would present a physical challenge for an individual to retrieve mail. To request door delivery, you need to write a letter requesting this change and attach a statement from a Doctor.
If I have Hardship or Medical Problems, how do I request Door Delivery:
Post office? Don't get me started! Back in the 70's the post office conducted a survey to ask town residents if they wanted P.O. Boxes or home delivery. The post office used to be the gathering place for sharing the gossip of the day, etc...
Well society just is not that way any more, heck we have facebook, next door and numerous platforms. Now for years the town residents have been trying to get home delivery. So far, not going to happen. AND they have to pay for that P.O. Box!
Your local postmaster is the person you need to speak to about this.
I live on a private road with 5 other houses, and when we first moved here our mailboxes were on the public road at the head of our road. Some neighbors complained about mail being stolen, but the bigger issue was every winter the snowplows would knock over the boxes.
We were able to successfully get permission to move the boxes onto our road just past the public road, but it was not an easy process. And once we got the approval, we were responsible for 1) getting the new mailboxes set up and 2) removing the old boxes from the main road.
My advice would be to start by taking pictures of where the mailbox is, and where you want to move it to, as well as some other options of where to move it in case the first place isn't acceptable. Then go into the post office that serves her area and ask to speak with the postmaster. Show the pictures and explain the situation; you might even request the postmaster does a "site survey" to check out the location first-hand.
What we were told was there are very strict rules about those postal trucks - they don't really like them going onto private roads, they don't like for the trucks to have to go in reverse, etc. Our road is wide enough that the truck can do an actual U-turn, and the boxes are really only about 50 feet in off the public road, so we were finally able to get grudging approval.
Depending on who this "her" is to you, how often you see her and what sort of mail she's receiving, you might be better off changing her mail to be delivered to YOUR home and then you drop it off when you see her. If the road her box is on is very busy, and she doesn't move well or quickly, it might even remain too dangerous for her to retrieve the mail on the "close" side of the street.
A family member moved my mother's box from one side of the road to the other and there has been no problem with getting the mail delivered there with no change of address. Though I suppose the actual route the driver makes may have helped in this. I also know of an elderly neighbor of mine who has the mail carrier bring her mail to her door. She had to fill out some papers. (I am not sure of the details. She is physically capable of walking to her box, but was having some health issues at the time.)
Good luck, not likely. Would a neighbor pick it up for her and bring it up to the house? Would she even remember she now has PO box? Or that a neighbor would bring it up for her?
My mother lived in the mtns of NC, I asked, they said No, she should rent a PO box at the post office or have her mail delivered to someone else and they can give it to her. My brother and I lived 700 miles away.
My mother was 93. She is now in AL, near us, she is where she belongs.
Hardship" or "Medical Problems" is defined as an illness or handicap which would present a physical challenge for an individual to retrieve mail. To request door delivery, you need to write a letter requesting this change and attach a statement from a Doctor.
If I have Hardship or Medical Problems, how do I request Door Delivery:
https://faq.usps.com/s/article/If-I-have-Hardship-or-Medical-Problems-how-do-I-request-Door-Delivery#:~:text=%22Hardship%22%20or%20%22Medical%20Problems,a%20statement%20from%20a%20Doctor.
Well society just is not that way any more, heck we have facebook, next door and numerous platforms. Now for years the town residents have been trying to get home delivery. So far, not going to happen. AND they have to pay for that P.O. Box!
https://www.agingcare.com/questions/it-is-too-dangerous-for-my-98-year-old-mother-to-get-across-her-yard-and-across-the-road-to-get-to-h-476478.htm
I live on a private road with 5 other houses, and when we first moved here our mailboxes were on the public road at the head of our road. Some neighbors complained about mail being stolen, but the bigger issue was every winter the snowplows would knock over the boxes.
We were able to successfully get permission to move the boxes onto our road just past the public road, but it was not an easy process. And once we got the approval, we were responsible for 1) getting the new mailboxes set up and 2) removing the old boxes from the main road.
My advice would be to start by taking pictures of where the mailbox is, and where you want to move it to, as well as some other options of where to move it in case the first place isn't acceptable. Then go into the post office that serves her area and ask to speak with the postmaster. Show the pictures and explain the situation; you might even request the postmaster does a "site survey" to check out the location first-hand.
What we were told was there are very strict rules about those postal trucks - they don't really like them going onto private roads, they don't like for the trucks to have to go in reverse, etc. Our road is wide enough that the truck can do an actual U-turn, and the boxes are really only about 50 feet in off the public road, so we were finally able to get grudging approval.
Depending on who this "her" is to you, how often you see her and what sort of mail she's receiving, you might be better off changing her mail to be delivered to YOUR home and then you drop it off when you see her. If the road her box is on is very busy, and she doesn't move well or quickly, it might even remain too dangerous for her to retrieve the mail on the "close" side of the street.
Good luck!
I also know of an elderly neighbor of mine who has the mail carrier bring her mail to her door. She had to fill out some papers. (I am not sure of the details. She is physically capable of walking to her box, but was having some health issues at the time.)
My mother was 93. She is now in AL, near us, she is where she belongs.