SAN JOSE — Two years ago, the city of San Jose got serious about the problem of illegal dumping by offering free trash pickups, easing the complaint process and imposing stiff fines on violators.

The result: 2,443 mattresses, 2,250 tons of debris, 1,900 shopping carts and more than 500 gallons of human waste.

And yet the streets are still dirty.

Tenley Corpus lives near San Jose’s Martial Cottle Park and loves walking its trails. Lately, though, her walks have been spoiled by an eyesore just across the street: a giant pile of garbage on Chynoweth Avenue. Nearby Hellyer Park and Branham Lane also are dotted with garbage piles and yard waste.

“I honestly can’t stand it,” Corpus said. “I’ve lived here over 40 years, and we never had a problem like this before. It just seems to be getting worse.”

Illegal dumping is a daunting problem across San Jose. Driving through the city, it’s not unusual to see teetering piles of furniture, mattresses and construction debris along the roadsides.

The impromptu garbage dumps block roads, create habitat for cockroaches and bedbugs, contaminate the groundwater, lower real estate values and hurt tourism.

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But trash doesn’t pile up evenly across the city, research shows. Rates of illegal dumping are higher in low-income areas with large minority populations, according to a San Jose State University study. More dumping also occurs in areas with more renters, non-English speakers and people per household, the study found.

To combat the problem, the city in December 2015 launched an anti-dumping pilot program, then expanded the ​program during the 2016-2017 fiscal year. As part of Mayor Sam Liccardo’s BeautifySJ initiative, the illegal dumping program is designed to link community and government efforts.

In fiscal year 2014-2015, when the city charged residents for every trash pickup, only 844 tons were collected. But beginning last July, residents were entitled to as many free pickups as they need — and the amount of junk jumped to 892 tons in just the first three months.

“It’s free and easy. That’s been our slogan, and that’s what it is,” said Jennie Loft, public information manager for the city’s Environmental Services Department. “It’s a program our communities really wanted.”

Free collections of large items, as well as “swap” events, are also offered to students in neighborhoods around San Jose State in an annual spring “Move Out Event.”

To discourage dumping, banners read “Don’t Trash San Jose” at the city’s known 160 “hot spots.” Cameras detect license plates. And if you’re caught, fines range from $2,500 and $10,000. So far, 18 citations have been written.

There’s also a streamlined reporting mechanism for those who spot garbage. Residents can call the city’s Environmental Services Department or snap a picture of the dump site on the new MySanJose mobile app. Launched in July, MySanJose gets an average 56 service requests per business day — 30 more than the department got six months before.

“We’re relying on the community to report illegal dumping and use the free pickup service,” Loft said. “That’s a critical piece of this puzzle.”

Once a site is identified, a team called RAPID (Removing and Preventing Illegal Dumping) is deployed. The team has doubled in size since its inception in 2016 — and the number of sites cleaned up in the city over the past two years has jumped 73 percent, from 2,537 in 2016 to 4,395 in 2017.

It now takes, on average, 4.1 days for the team to respond to a complaint. In 2016, it took 11.2 days.

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The new services are publicized by the city at neighborhood association meetings, online via Facebook and Nextdoor, and through educational materials in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

The effort resulted in a big boost in trash collections from 2016 to 2017: 270 gallons of human waste, up from 175; 1,131 mattresses, up from 974; 700 shopping carts, up from 578; and 995 gallons of paint, up from 107 gallons.

But do San Jose residents see much of a difference?

The last “visual trash assessment” in areas where the garbage could eventually end up in waterways was completed in the fiscal year that ended last June. It found that trash was down a modest 8.2 percent over previous years. But that was before the unlimited free trash pickups were offered and the MySanJose mobile app was launched. So city officials are hoping the next survey will show more dramatic results.

Yet there’s little doubt that San Jose is still struggling to stay ahead of the problem.

It took six of the team’s nine members to tackle the most recent illegal dumping on Chynoweth Avenue, for example. “People dump there weekly,” said Kristy Barton, a Santa Clara County ranger at Cottle Park.

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Shovels, rakes and brooms in hand, the team set to work. Rats scurried from the pile of granite, plywood and food packaging as the workers cleared the debris from the street. Together, they hoisted the remnants of a bed frame into their truck. They carefully removed any syringes and hazardous waste they came across as they worked.

“We see it all — construction debris, piles of dirt, biological waste,” said team supervisor Ed Ramirez. “Sometimes people leave an RV filled with trash, or dump refrigerators full of rotten food.”

Someday, the team members hope, San Jose will be clean again.

Said Ramirez: “They want to bring San Jose back to the way it was when we were kids.”

Staff writers Lisa M. Krieger and Tracy Seipel contributed to this report.