SALISBURY — On the night of Sept. 21, Fame Preservation Group founder Greg Lambeth was walking around the Old Lutheran Cemetery making sure no one was vandalizing the historic property. Suddenly, he noticed a white car drop off a person who eventually walked through the main entrance gate. Due to a no trespassing ordinance, Lambeth could not follow them, but arrived the following day to find a homeless encampment right next to a gated, family plot. A blue tarp was draped between the fence and a wall of the cemetery, with a queen-sized mattress underneath.

Lambeth was in disbelief. He had seen unsheltered individuals there before, but the sight of someone actually camping right next to another person’s resting place made him emotional.

“It was kind of a mixture of despair because it is a situation of homelessness, but also a sense of, of all the places that could’ve picked, why’d they pick a cemetery? I don’t really know, I had mixed feelings about it,” Lambeth said.

Since Salisbury owns and maintains the property, Lambeth soon contacted the city and Homeless Liaison Dennis Rivers arrived to investigate. The unsheltered person was not at the property, so Rivers came back over the next couple days until he was able to meet with them directly.

Rivers eventually met with the person in question and shared with them the resources the city offers to assist unsheltered individuals to better their current situations. Even though the person denied wanting help, Rivers explained that they were still on private property and needed to leave.

“The person was very polite and understanding. He actually works a side job in landscaping. Some people were going to pick him up,” Rivers said. “He said he just fell on some hard times, losing his job the previous year, stuff like that.”

Rivers says there was no damage to the cemetery and that it was “well kept.” The person soon gathered his belongings and left.

When it comes to handling reports of encampments, Rivers says he needs to figure out if it is located on personal private property, city property, state property or abandoned property. If the owner of the property has a no trespassing agreement or if they do not want an encampment, Rivers visits with anyone who is unsheltered there and routinely informs of the resources and programs the city has for them to use. He asks them questions like if they have relatives they can stay with or if they want to go to a shelter.

“No one is trying to push them out of Salisbury at all. It’s more trying to find different options that’s available for them,” Rivers said.

Rivers says the city works with the property owners and gives people 24-48 hours to leave the premises to give them enough time to remove and handle their possessions. If they are still there after that timeframe, they are charged with trespassing. Rivers continues to monitor previous campsites to make sure no one returns.

Additionally, Rivers confirmed that the benches located at the corner of East Fisher and South Lee streets have been removed by the city because people routinely slept on them. Rivers says the area is classified as a park and that there is an ordinance in place stating no one is allowed to sleep on that kind of property.