The Houston Social Security Offices: Southeast, Southwest, Northwest, Northeast and Pasadena

Which Social Security office serves a Houston ZIP code?

It depends on which part of the city you live in. Social Security's office locator assigns each ZIP code it lists to one field office. Assignments can change, so enter your address in the locator rather than going by a list.

Some assignments are easy to guess wrong. Downtown, Midtown, Montrose and the Texas Medical Center go to the Southeast office, as do Bellaire and the Missouri City ZIP codes 77459 and 77489, while the Sugar Land ZIP codes 77478, 77479 and 77498 and Stafford's 77477 go to Southwest. Katy is split: 77450 and 77494 go to Southwest, while 77449 and 77493 go to Northwest. Clear Lake goes to Pasadena. Check Heights addresses in the locator, because nearby ZIP codes there go to different offices. The office the locator names handles the non-medical side of your claim and can answer questions about that part of a pending claim before it reaches a hearing office. You can apply online, by phone or at a field office.

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Addresses, Phone Numbers and Mail for the Five Houston Offices

The locator lists all five offices as open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central time and closed on weekends. Hours and closures can change, so check the office's own locator page before you go.

• Houston Southeast: 8989 Lakes at 610 Drive, Houston, TX 77054. Phone 1-866-404-1861, fax 1-833-950-2716.

• Houston Southwest: 13302 Westheimer Road, Houston, TX 77077. Phone 1-866-592-1608, fax 1-833-515-0520.

• Houston Northwest: 16200 Dillard Drive, Houston, TX 77040, near Senate Avenue and Highway 290. Phone 1-866-331-3277, fax 1-833-950-2712.

• Houston Northeast: 5414 Aldine Mail Road, Houston, TX 77039. Phone 1-866-931-2729, fax 1-833-950-2714.

• Pasadena: 3300 Watters Road, Pasadena, TX 77504, off Spencer Highway west of Beltway 8. Phone 1-866-563-4603, fax 1-833-950-2414.

The locator lists a Kansas City, Missouri mailing address for each of the five, rather than the street address, with its own office code: Social Security, NRC / FO 857 (Southeast), 816 (Southwest), 855 (Northwest), 856 (Northeast) or 850 (Pasadena), PO Box 416000, Kansas City, MO 64141. When you answer a notice, use the return address printed on it. The national number, 1-800-772-1213, can also schedule a phone or in-person appointment.

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The Woodlands, Pearland, Galveston and the other suburban offices

• Conroe, 600 Sgt Ed Holcomb Boulevard N, Conroe, TX 77304: 77301 to 77304 (Conroe); 77380 to 77382 (The Woodlands); 77373, 77379, 77386, 77388, 77389 (Spring); 77375, 77377 (Tomball); 77354, 77355 (Magnolia); 77356 (Montgomery); 77357 (New Caney); 77365 (Porter). Phone 1-866-614-0032.

• League City, 2835 Gulf Freeway South, League City, TX 77573: 77573 (League City); 77546 (Friendswood); 77539 (Dickinson); 77565 (Kemah); 77568 (La Marque); 77510, 77517 (Santa Fe); 77550, 77551, 77554 (Galveston); 77590, 77591 (Texas City). Phone 1-866-299-3254.

• Angleton, 2921 N Valderas Street, Angleton, TX 77515: 77581, 77584 (Pearland); 77511 (Alvin); 77578 (Manvel); 77583 (Rosharon); 77515 (Angleton); 77566 (Lake Jackson); 77531 (Clute). Phone 1-866-338-2940.

• Brenham, 2901 Victory Lane, Brenham, TX 77833: 77423 (Brookshire); 77445 (Hempstead); 77484 (Waller); 77418 (Bellville). Phone 1-855-287-4792.

Spring and Tomball go to Conroe rather than to the Northwest office, Galveston residents go to the office on the Gulf Freeway in League City, and Pearland goes to the Angleton office in Brazoria County rather than to a Houston office. These offices keep the same weekday hours and use the same Kansas City mailing address with their own office codes.

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What the field office handles and what Texas DDS decides

The field office checks the eligibility points that have nothing to do with your health, such as age, employment, marital status and Social Security coverage, then sends the case on for the medical decision, as Social Security's page on the disability determination process describes. The state agency usually asks your own doctors and clinics for records first and can schedule a consultative examination when they are unavailable or not enough.

Texas Disability Determination Services (DDS) is part of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. When you or your representative request your records, Texas law helps: Health and Safety Code section 161.202 bars a Texas health care provider or facility, such as a hospital, from charging a fee for records that you or your representative request to support an SSDI or SSI application or appeal, when the request includes the agency's confirmation of the application or appeal, and section 161.203 gives the provider 30 days to send them. The fee ban does not cover records that DDS or another agency requests itself; the provider is not barred from charging for those.

A request for reconsideration, the first appeal after a denial, must be made in writing, generally within 60 days after you receive the denial notice. Social Security treats you as receiving a notice 5 days after the date on it unless you show otherwise, and if you miss the deadline you can ask in writing for more time and explain why; Social Security extends it only if it finds you had good cause. You can file online, or mail, fax or bring a written request, such as the request form, to a field office. Calling 1-800-772-1213 can start the request, but a call alone does not protect the deadline: the appeal is not filed until Social Security has a written request, though a mailed request counts as filed on its U.S. postmark date if the arrival date would make it late. When the denial was medical, Texas Disability Determination Services reviews the claim again, with an examiner who did not make the first decision; a non-medical denial, such as one based on income or work record, is reviewed by Social Security. After a reconsideration denial, a written hearing request, also generally due within 60 days after you receive that notice, moves the case to a hearing office.

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Which of the two Houston hearing offices takes your appeal

Houston has two hearing offices. Which one takes your hearing generally depends on your residence address, and Social Security lists each hearing office's area by the field offices it covers. The hearing office list behind Social Security's hearing office locator, Appendix F of the agency's privacy notice for hearing records and the offices' locator records agree on which hearing office takes each field office, with the two differences noted below.

• Houston (North) hearing office: 4015 Aldine Bender Road, Houston, TX 77032, phone 1-877-850-7829. Its list includes Houston Southeast, Houston Northeast, Conroe and Brenham, plus Beaumont, Port Arthur, Bryan and Lufkin.

• Houston (West) hearing office: Suite 200, 9700 Richmond Avenue, Houston, TX 77042, phone 1-866-779-5456. Its list includes Houston Southwest, Houston Northwest, Pasadena, Angleton and the League City office (named Galveston on the hearing office list), plus Victoria.

That split does not follow the hearing offices' names. Downtown, the Medical Center, Bellaire and Missouri City ZIP codes 77459 and 77489 go through the Southeast field office to the North hearing office on Aldine Bender Road, while Sugar Land, Katy, Cypress, Pasadena, Clear Lake, Galveston and Pearland go to the West hearing office on Richmond Avenue. The Woodlands, Spring, Kingwood and Humble go to the North hearing office. Two entries differ between sources: the hearing office list names Galveston where Appendix F and the office records name League City, and both lists name a Houston Downtown office that the office records describe as a support unit at the Southeast office's address, with no public phone number.

Social Security's operations manual says hearing office jurisdiction is set by the claimant's residence address. To ask for a different hearing office, give a signed statement of your reasons with your hearing request, which a field office forwards to the hearing office, and Social Security decides whether to transfer the case. A hearing can be in person, by agency video at a Social Security site, by phone, or by online video if you agree to it. You can object in writing to a phone or agency video hearing within 30 days after you receive the notice of the ways you can attend, or later if you show good cause. Social Security can still schedule a phone hearing over an objection in limited circumstances. The Notice of Hearing names the office and the format. Separately, Social Security's hearings manual lets management move a batch of cases to another hearing office to relieve a temporary workload imbalance or increase productivity, and the office that receives the cases notifies you and any representative you have. Our Houston disability lawyer page covers both hearing offices in more detail, our hearing office directory lists the rest, and our Texas disability lawyer page covers the state as a whole.

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