Homeless Demand Respect for Potters Field

New York, NY —

A group of homeless and formerly homeless people is calling on the city to show more respect to those buried on Potters Field. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

REPORTER: Sitting on Harts Island in the waters between the Bronx and Queens, the city run cemetery is where all unidentified bodies go. Those too poor to afford a funeral are also laid to rest there.

Rikers Island inmates perform the burials. Ceremonies are not allowed and visits are rare. William Bennett from Picture the Homeless says homeless people like himself deserve better.

BENNETT: Just because someone is homeless doesn't mean they don't have people in their lives, family or friends who miss them and they need closure.

REPORTER: Bennett wants the site open to the public at least on certain days. The Department of Corrections says its protective of the grounds and wants to avoid turning the cemetery into a curiosity. About 15-hundred people get buried there each year.

A city spokesman says the last official count of total bodies was 700-thousand and that was in the late 50's.