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It’s hard to do anything in the modern world without a legal, fixed address—a fact you may never have realized if you’re fortunate enough to never have been unhoused. Without one, you quickly find that everything from applying for jobs to ordering something online is extremely challenging.
Whether you are facing hardship, living the nomadic lifestyle, or just between addresses for a time, there is an old-school hack you can use to get past many of those limitations. It’s called general delivery, and anyone can use it to get their mail, whether they’re unhoused, on the move, or simply traveling.
How general delivery works
General delivery is a service provided by the United States Postal Service that allows people to send mail to you via a post office, where it will be held for up to 30 days, depending on the type of mail. All the sender needs to do is address the mail to you while listing “general delivery” as the address. For example, if you are unhoused and need an address to receive support checks and important documents in New York City, you can have them sent to the main post office at the following address:
Your Name
General Delivery
New York, NY 10001
As the recipient, you would have 10 days to collect regular mail at the General Delivery window at 390 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan (30 days for checks). After that, the post office will return the mail to the sender.
This used to be the main way everyone got their mail—it was sent to a local post office and people would stop by periodically to pick it up. When fixed addresses became more common and codified and personal delivery routes were established, the service was obviously used much less—but it’s still in effect, and you can use it if you need to.
The general delivery service comes with some potential restrictions:
Typically, it’s only available at one post office location in an area, so you’ll need to make some calls to find out where your mail will actually go if someone uses it. The local postmaster has a lot of discretion; if you get too much mail, they can reject it or return it all to the sender if they don’t have the local ability to store it. They can also simply decide to stop offering the service to you. You still need to present legal identification in order to retrieve your mail.Even with these restrictions, general delivery can solve a lot of problems even if you’re not unhoused.
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The problem with post office boxes
General delivery is mainly useful for people who don’t have a home address or who are traveling and away from their address for a long period of time. For example, in New York City, thousands of unhoused people get their mail this way every day.
One other use for general delivery that many people find useful: Getting around post office box (POB) restrictions. Having a post office box as an alternate address is a good way to keep your home address private—you get daily mail deliveries and private access to a secure box. The main problem with using a POB is that most delivery services, including Fed Ex and UPS, won’t deliver packages to one.
Using general delivery is a potential hack to get your packages delivered without using your home address. It’s important to note that this isn’t guaranteed: While most online retailers (like Amazon) and shipping companies will accept a general delivery address on their websites, there can still be problems once they show up at the post office with your packages. As mentioned above, the local postmaster can simply decide that there isn’t enough storage space for your stuff and refuse the delivery. And if your online retailer accepts the address but UPS, for example, does not, you could have a lot of trouble tracking your package down.
Still, if you’re between addresses or can’t use your home address for some reason, general delivery offers a potential solution for your packages. Pro tip: If you plan to rely on general delivery, it is a good idea to contact the local postmaster first to speak to them about it directly. This can smooth over any misunderstandings and ensure the post office is ready, willing, and able to get your mail to you.
