San Jose admits it can’t keep up with mounting piles of trash, illegal dumping

For Jim Salata, there’s no escaping the all-too-familiar sight — and looming danger — of the mounting piles of trash and debris that he passes each day on his way to his office just south of downtown San Jose.

“It’s disgusting,” the owner of Garden City Construction said in a recent interview. “We’re in Silicon Valley but this place looks like a crap hole.”

Salata says he tried for years to get local officials to address the trash and debris that accumulates on the off-ramps of Interstate 280 at First Street, but his emails and phone calls appeared to go nowhere, resulting in little progress.

Then, after a fire broke out along the off-ramp last month and threatened the businesses of Salata and his neighbors, he took matters into his own hands, spending upward of $10,000 to rent heavy-duty equipment and clean up the area with the help of more than a dozen of his employees and neighbors.

“I finally said, ‘To hell with it,’ ” Salata said. “We had to protect our own properties because no one else is doing anything about it.”

Although San Jose has long dealt with reports of illegal dumping and growing homeless encampments, the situation has grown worse in recent months.

From the creek beds in and around the city’s downtown core to the off-ramps and underpasses of Interstate 280 and Highway 85 to long stretches of Monterey Road in south San Jose — piles of trash, tires, broken tents, abandoned vehicles and furniture continue to mount.

And by the city’s own admission, San Jose is struggling to deal with it.

“The reality is it (the city’s current process to address the blight) has not been anywhere near enough to do an effective job and keep the city clean, regardless of how hard staff works,” Deputy City Manager Jim Ortbal said in a recent city council meeting. “…We’re not giving up on anything, but we’re picking our battles.”

To keep the city truly clean, Ortbal said that it would likely need to conduct weekly trash pickups at more than 200 known encampments and illegal dumpsites across the city. According to data recently compiled by the city, only about 10% of the sites are currently cleaned up weekly, while at least 65% are cleaned up once a month or fewer.

More than 5,000 people sleep on San Jose streets any given night, city officials and homeless advocates estimate, and the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing economic fallout have only exacerbated the crisis. Since the pandemic struck the region in mid-March, San Jose and other entities, such as Caltrans, Union Pacific and the county, have halted abatements of homeless encampments in accordance with guidance from the public health experts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

But that’s only one part of the problem.

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