Residents in an Alton subdivision are frustrated after they say they've gone months without getting their mail delivered.

5 on Your Side did some digging and found out a solution seems to be on the way. But the residents will still wind up paying to get their mail in the meantime.

Fifty-three households in the Alton Pointe Phase III neighborhood near Trosper Blvd. have been without mail service since last August. Residents say they're still not sure why.

“I went to the post office and spoke with someone and they basically said that the developers of the land here were responsible for building CBU units and that they were aware of it, but they just haven’t done it,” said resident Krystal Perez.

Channel 5 News reached out to the company responsible for developing the area, Fortis Land Company, LLC, for answers. Sales manager Eddie Rodriguez said the company was never given notice by USPS or any government authority to install cluster boxes during the development and approval of Alton Pointe Phase III in 2018.

Rodriguez also says when Phase III was finished, the Mission post office delivered their mail for more than a year, but then it stopped.

“I was receiving my mail for the first two months and then I received a letter stating that I was no longer going to be receiving any mail here at my address,” Perez said. 

The Mission post office stopped delivering their mail in August of last year, impacting all 53 households. The Mission post master was unavailable for comment.

USPS leaders in Houston say according to the law, they must use centralized delivery by utilizing cluster box units (CBU) as the preferred method of delivery for all new residential and commercial developments, including residential neighborhoods like Alton Point Phase III. 

“The city found out last summer sometime perhaps August,” said Alton City Manager Jeff Underwood.

Since August, developers with Fortis say they’ve been trying to work with the post office to bring back door-to-door service, but they’ve been told it’s not likely to happen.

So now, with the issue at a standstill, Fortis says they’ve agreed to provide cluster boxes.

5 On Your Side reached out to Underwood to confirm.

"Get us the boxes so we can install them and put them in the proper places to get our residents back to that service,” Underwood said.

Those boxes aren't scheduled to arrive for up to 60 days, and come Monday, their only choice to receive their mail is to rent at a cost of $78.

It's a price that some Phase III residents say isn't fair. 

“Usually when people have to rent post office boxes, it’s their option to rent one. It’s not required," said resident Jerry State. "It shouldn’t be required for us to have to pay to get our mail.”