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Managers of Jewish cemeteries fed up with disrespect of sacred grounds

SEATTLE — The people behind two historic Jewish cemeteries in North Seattle are fed up with people disrespecting their sacred grounds.

They blame the homeless for the ongoing issues.

“Yesterday our groundskeeper caught two people having sex on top of tombstones,” said Ari Hoffman, a board member of Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath Cemetery.

Hoffman is frustrated by some people constantly desecrating the cemetery.

“It was the middle of the day,” he explained. “It was 11 o' clock in broad daylight. Six feet from the fence of the cemetery where the main street was.”

KIRO 7 first reported on the problems at the Historic Jewish cemeteries in April. Click here to read more.

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Hoffman shared pictures of needles dumped on the sacred grounds. He told us about the alleged prostitution going on in the woods behind them. At the time, our camera captured homeless camps and RVs parked right outside the cemetery.

Now, Hoffman says Seattle police are patrolling more often.

The camps and RVs are gone, but the problems aren't.

“The politicians give us a lot of lip service and haven't done anything,” Hoffman said. “I haven’t seen any real action yet.”

He said over the last two years, the cemetery has incurred $110,000 worth of damage due to homelessness. And they're in the process of filing damage claim forms with the city.

“This is not something anybody wanted to do. It comes from a lack of enforcement of the laws. And that's the city's job and it's not being done,” Hoffman said.

The city of Seattle said the navigation team inspected and removed two tents and an RV because they were obstructing the right of way.

Seattle Police also confirmed they responded to the cemetery Tuesday but no arrests were made.