St Georges Crypt

St Georges Crypt

St Georges Crypt is aChristian charity organisation that started 83 years ago after the depression, for men without work . The reverent Percy Donald Robins cleared out the crypt to make way for a sustainable and reliable charity that continues to house and rehabilitate members of the homeless community. Set up as a social enterprise that made coat hangers the Crypt now run 3 different centre across Leeds, offering a bed, 3 meals a day and lunch for £1.

I was informed of the Crypt by my tutor Annabeth, who suggested that the charity would be a great place to start in gathering information on the homeless community in Leeds. I took the initiative to call the charity, where I was greeted by Andrew Omond a manger at the Crypt. He agreed to meet up for a preliminary interview on monday the 24th of March.

• Andrew began by explaining the work that Crypt in giving the homeless two feet to stand on. They run a self catering program that leads to employment as well as teaching the less fortunate basic cooking skills.
• The charity run 2 shops that bring in funds towards the crypt as well as employing homeless to run the shop.
• St Georges run the main centre home which can house 15 people in single beds. The charity lso have two other bed sites, one wet and one dry; both of which have 15 beds. 
• The wet centre allows individuals to continue drinking if they so wish but are encouraged to cut back. Andrew explained that it is better for these people to be drinking in a safe controlled environment as opposed to drinking on the streets.
• The dry centre runs a strict abstinence regime, where drinking is not tolerated and can see you expelled from the facility. The site runs of the 12 step program to sobriety.
• The dry centre runs a therapeutic gardening program that teaches the less fortunate to nurture and grow. The centre also runs training engagement that looks at confidence training.
• The crypt future plans are for a purpose built housing that combine the work place with a home for the less fortunate.
• Andrew explained that there are very few long term homeless, however there has been a massive increase in young homeless, as well as an increase in food parcels. 
• However, their public spending has not been cut and work successfully with the council with 20% of their funds paid by the government.

Andrew Omond was a excellent person to talk to in furthering my project, further more he agreed to appear on camera for me, adding new characters, dimensions and topic of issues o be discussed in the documentary. We parted way with each others e-mail addresses, with the confirmation of an interview in the next couple of weeks.