Homeless People Are Sleeping, Hiding In Graves, Removing ‘Lids Of Tombs’ In Historical Cambridge Cemetery
Homeless people are sleeping in and using graves as shelters in a historic cemetery in Cambridge. The Mill Road Cemetery, located in the county of Cambridgeshire in the eastern part of England, has become overrun with homeless people and their trash, according to the Daily Mail on Friday. The report goes on to say that volunteers continue to clear away vegetation “so there is nowhere” for the homeless to camp. However, homeless people are now removing “lids of tombs” and using the above-ground graves “as beds for the night.”
The Metro reported on Saturday that a team put together by city council members regularly pick up litter left behind by homeless people, including more than 200 dirty needles discarded by homeless drug users. According to the council, the homeless people in the city of Cambridge are displaying anti-social behavior by sleeping in graves and using tombs as hiding places to inject themselves and drink alcohol. The previously-mentioned Daily Mail article reports that the Mill Road Cemetery has become notoriously known for homeless drug users, as well as homeless people just looking for a place to sleep at night.
Witnesses have reported seeing homeless people actually pushing the lids off of tombs and sitting upright in tombs, and one local Cambridge resident was reportedly shocked to witness a male homeless person sitting in a tomb “with his trousers down” and injecting his thigh — “in full view.” According to the Cambridgeshire police, it’s become common to see drunk people and homeless people sleeping in the cemetery and removing “tombstone lids” to sleep inside. The city council says that the increase in the number of homeless people seen sleeping in graves is a result of the increase in the actual number of homeless people in the city of Cambridge.
Homeless people are moving tombstones and sleeping inside graves. https://t.co/cW6vmeWzuO pic.twitter.com/GBOmU5ddTS
— LADbible (@ladbible) March 30, 2018
Reactions to the recent reports of homeless people sleeping in the graves in a cemetery, which was created in the mid-1800s and has since been listed as a historic place in England, are mixed, with some saying they are “completely shocked” and others offering solutions to try to further curb the problem. LadBible reported on Friday that the Mill Road Cemetery has been dealing with the issue of “rough sleeping” in tombs for the last six years — at least. The report goes on to say that the UK graveyard is being used as a “makeshift sleeping area” for the homeless, as well as an illegal campground among the vegetation, which offers cover for not only the ground but also for drug users.
The Sun also reported on Friday that the graves have become “damaged and tarnished” by homeless people who “have taken up” permanent residence in the Mill Road Cemetery, which is located off Mill Road in the small residential area of Petersfield in Cambridge. The city council reportedly considers the issue of homeless people sleeping in graves a “priority” to be dealt with, along with continued complaints about “dog poo” and littering.
While reports of homeless people sleeping in graves are not common, the Inquisitr previously reported on a 43-year-old homeless man who lived “in a cemetery grave” for over a decade after losing his job as a construction worker in his late 20s. Bratislav Stojanovic told Reuters in 2013 that he now prefers to live among the dead, rather than among the living, in a large concrete underground tomb in Serbia in the southeastern part of Europe. According to Stojanovic, he finds everything he needs “in garbage containers and on the streets” and considers his tomb, that’s located in an abandoned cemetery in the city of Nis, both “comfortable and cozy.”
