As San Diego’s trash deadline nears, thousands of people who lost city service are left out in the cold

San Diego’s transition away from free trash service is creating chaos for property owners, homeowners associations and management companies that handle 21,000 properties recently declared ineligible for city service.

The city’s controversial transition has focused mostly on 225,000 single-family homes and small apartment complexes that will soon be forced to pay $43.60 a month, after decades of not having to pay a fee to get trash service.

But the people in the 21,000 properties declared ineligible for city service are facing more daunting challenges — and many fear they could be left without trash service.

They’ve been given just a few weeks to negotiate trash pickup deals with five private haulers, a messy process that’s involved flat rejections from haulers, placement on waiting lists and even haulers reneging on signed deals at the last minute.

Property managers and HOAs say the haulers are overwhelmed by so many simultaneous requests for new service. The haulers have been telling prospective customers they lack the immediate capacity — trucks and drivers — to absorb so many new customers so quickly.

Only about 20% of the newly ineligible properties have secured new service from a private trash hauler — roughly 4,300 — with the city’s Sept. 1 deadline just over a month away.

Property managers say that when the haulers do offer service, it’s often much more expensive than the city’s new rate.

In some cases, to reduce costs, the property managers are forced to switch away from individual containers to dumpsters that serve the whole complex. But some properties don’t have enough space for a dumpster — or lack an opening for a truck to access a dumpster and haul away its contents.

Managers of the newly ineligible properties — mostly apartment and townhome complexes with more units than the four-unit maximum for city service — say the process has been frustrating, confusing and time-consuming.

“This has been almost a full-time job for me for the last two months,” said Jill Johnson, treasurer of the HOA for an eight-unit complex in Ocean Beach. “These haulers are ill-equipped for this new volume of customers.”

Johnson said she’s had to manage five separate email chains with five separate haulers negotiating whether her complex could get service, how much it would cost, timelines and other details.

Some critics say it’s not just the haulers who deserve blame. They say city officials should have made sure the haulers had capacity — and were willing to take on new customers — before the transition began.

Robin Allen, who handles five complexes declared newly ineligible for city trash service, said it’s clear the process was not well-planned.

“It’s been quite the experience,” said Allen, whose properties are all across the city, including in Golden Hill, Mission Hills and Pacific Beach. “It’s been tough finding companies with capacity. And some properties have no space for a dumpster. The landlords are saying, ‘What do we do?’”

Perhaps the most frustrating thing to happen, she said, was that Republic Services, one of the city’s five private haulers, reneged at the last minute on a deal with one of her complexes.

“We were all set, with a signed contract, and ready to go,” she said. “They said they couldn’t follow through and put us on a waiting list.”

Scott Eklund, an HOA board member for an eight-unit complex in South Park, said the same thing happened to his complex.

“We even had a transition plan with Republic, and then they said no at the last minute,” said Eklund, noting that Republic didn’t offer his complex a spot on the waiting list.

Republic said by email that it couldn’t comment on the last-minute decisions not to offer service.

“Our company offers multiple recycling, organics and waste solutions across San Diego County; however, this issue pertains specifically to City of San Diego operations, and we are not in a position to comment,” the statement said.

The other four haulers — EDCO, Universal Waste Systems, Ware Disposal and Waste Management — declined to comment for this story.

City officials acknowledged this week that the newly ineligible properties are struggling with the transition, but they said there is no reason to panic.

“We always knew, from the very beginning of planning, that this could be a possibility,” said Andrea Deleon, who oversees relationships with the approved haulers as a deputy director for environmental services. “We want to reassure property owners that as long as they are in the active process of working with the city or a hauler, the city will not stop their service.”

Deleon said there’s been a recent jump in people calling with questions, most often about transitioning to private haulers.

“There’s a lot of change happening, and change takes time,” Deleon said. “We’re not going to be perfect — we recognize that.”

Deleon suggested that part of the problem may be sticker shock, with property owners getting offers for service but becoming frustrated how expensive they are.

“Some property owners are hearing back from a hauler, but they are not too happy with the cost or changing to a dumpster,” she said.

Deleon said the haulers are sometimes reluctant to add service in neighborhoods or on streets where they don’t have many other customers, because it doesn’t make financial sense.

“Having a larger number of customers all along the same street is going to be a lot easier than having onesies and twosies on a street,” she said. “Because it’s an open market, the haulers get to select what makes the most sense for their operations.”

The city chose an open market in an effort to create competition and, it hoped, lead to cheaper rates and more service options. Complaints have been rare from the businesses and large apartment complexes that have been using the haulers for years.

Deleon said the city could shift to a model where everyone must use the same hauler, and the city negotiates fixed monthly prices. But she said a competitive market has always made sense to city leaders.

Deleon said the city is working closely with the haulers to get this transition right. She said no one will lose service while transitioning, and no one will be charged for the extra time they continue to get city service past their deadline.

“We’re not going to stop your service unless you have private hauler service in place,” she said.

However, property owners must show the city evidence they’ve been rejected by private haulers to get service extensions.

Deleon noted that the city staggered the deadlines in order to smooth the transition for newly ineligible properties.

If the city had been picking up your trash on Mondays, the deadline was July 1. Tuesday customers had until July 15, Wednesday customers have until Aug. 1, Thursday customers have until Aug. 15, and Friday customers have until Sept. 1.

Eklund, the HOA board member from South Park, said the experience for his complex was more complicated, because the HOA unsuccessfully appealed the city’s ruling this spring that it’s ineligible.

While the complex has eight properties, they are spread across only four lots — the maximum number the city will serve.

Eklund said it seems to him the haulers might be offering higher rates because they know property owners don’t have much leverage.

“We felt they were price-gouging,” he said.

The complex eventually hired a trash service broker and ended up with a monthly rate of $700 for the eight properties — $87.50 per property. The new fee will raise monthly HOA dues from about $500 to roughly $600, he said.

Johnson, the HOA treasurer in Ocean Beach, said her complex switched from individual cans to dumpsters in an effort to slash monthly costs for the eight-unit complex from $800 to $273.

Another challenge for the owners of apartment complexes is deciding whether to pass the new trash fee on to renters.

Park La Jolla, a complex with roughly 200 units in Bird Rock, was declared newly ineligible for city service this spring and inked a deal with Waste Management.

Early this month, they sent all their month-to-month tenants notices that their rent is increasing $20 a month on Sept. 1.

“The city has always provided trash service for free,” the notice says. “The property will now be incurring the monthly cost of trash collection.”

City officials say questions can be asked at 858-694-7000 or by email to trash@sandiego.gov. The city’s trash website is sandiego.gov/trash-service-updates.