friday 13th feb - interviews at St. George crypt.

today me and Katherine (3rd year fashion student who is also taking part in the publication for st George crypt went down to St. George crypt to interview people,however because the crypt hadn't found clients/or certain clients were not around who were willing to share there stories about being homeless, we were only able to interview members of the staff. though this was interesting to get a better understanding of the work that goes on at the crypt and find out what they gain from working at the crypt, i will definitely need to return to interview clients so i can communicate a journey of a homeless persons life and be able to show this journal in my illustrations. i also need this information to add into my essay to back up my point of how homeless can happen to anyone.

This is Damien.

I run Urban Sprawl, Yorkshire’s only homeless theatre company for 10 and half years. In that time we have demonstrated and proven the ethics for theatre engagement as a tool, which can be used for future lives and aspirations.  

"What do you get out of doing this?"

"I suppose I made a claim to myself once that I’d leave the world a better place than I’ve found it. That’s it really, plus some experience of taking this myself and of the issues that lead towards homelessness, it is born of idealism and empathy. We’re a landmark, people who have chaotic lives, we are there, they know where to find us" 

"What type of things would you be doing on a daily session like today?"

"Most of our work is project based, and based on the idea on achievable goals. The achievable goal of theatre is a positive and wonderful thing, so essentially yes we would always be working towards a production of some description"

 Matthew.

A keen actor for Urban Sprawl at the Crypt who performed a short play today within the organisation that they had been working on for 18 weeks.

"When I first started at Urban Sprawl I was in a bedsit. I was begging on the streets for money and drugs, food stuff like that. Basically I had no life at all. I was scum. I got shown to Urban Sprawl by Kim, Kim’s a manager here at the Crypt. I have been coming here now since I was about 17."

"Has doing Urban Sprawl helped you get over your troubles?"

"I wouldn’t say it has helped me, it has made things easier. I dunno, I think about things differently now, instead of what I did before. I’m not smashing my flat up anymore, I get angry now and then, but don’t do that. It’s just like a little family network here"

"What do your tattoos mean?"

"They all mean something, this one means hate love. I hate being in love. There just crosses I put on me hands. That’s me son, that’s me Mam and Dad obviously, that’s me daughter"

"How old are they?"

"My daughter would be 2 and half now I think, wait no 5.. it was 2009 because it’s 2015 now isn’t it? 4… she’ll be 6! 6 yeah, wow. Erm me son, would of been 3 and me Dad died. But they’re not just things I stick on my arm."

" have your perceptions of clothing changed since being homeless, do you have an opinion on fashion?"

"I have yeah, as long as your clothes are nice and clean and you look decent, you’re alright. But if your clothes look messy, cut up and all that. You’re either having a bad time or you’re not bothered about yourself anymore"

"Do you think it changes how people view you?"

"Yeah when I see people that don’t have clean clothes I think "bluuuuugh, don’t come near me" but I think deeper and think that there might be a problem there. Possibly to why they’re stinking or might be underline problems about why they can’t look after themselves. When I was on the street I looked after myself, I was thinking of what other people thought of me, I’ve got to clean myself. I couldn’t blame anyone except for myself, If I can do it, anyone can.

"Are you happy with your life moving forward now?"

"I am now, but one step at a time, sometimes I feel like I’m moving too fast and have to slow down a bit."    

This is Matthew.

His job title at the Crypt is Operations Director

"I oversee the whole of the project really, we have two hostels, such as one for men who are still dependent drinkers, that’s 10 beds. An another called Faith Lodge which is a 15 bed for men who are coming off drink and drugs"

"What are your reasons for working at the Crypt, what do you get out of it yourself?"

”Well I became a Christian in 1995 and that altered my grid references, value and life. So I no longer pursued just pure self and money, I realised there was a bit more to life, that I wanted to work with people. Therefore I have spent the last 10 years or so working particularly working for third sector organisations. I happened to get married in 2004, moved to this area and worked in Bradford before in a homeless organisation working specifically with people on drugs. I saw a job, and advertised as a Christian organisation I thought this fits in with my values and that’s why I came here”

"Do people upload their feelings onto you, as staff is it hard for you to deal with?" 

I think it can. I met a chap who had come from Manchester and had been fleeing violence. He was sitting opposite me, and he was talking to me, obviously quite traumatised but there was nothing I could do. I’m just sitting and listening, within authority Manchester still have the responsibility for him. He couldn’t stay here, he actually needed to go back. That’s what I said to him, and when I told him that, he began to cry. But the tears that it was, was like a small child, who has just broken their favourite toy. It was recognising that this was unfixable, they weren’t tears of "Oh dear just a bit upset". It was a frightened child tears of a grown man sitting opposite me, there was very little I could do. I wanted to hug him and tell him it would be alright, but it wasn’t going to be alright, he was going back to Manchester. I went back to my office and thought, "what do I do about that?" but in the end it is our job to make sure that equally they move forward in their lives.

Ralph.

"What do you do here at the Crypt?"

"Everything"

"Everything?"

Everything that needs doing

"Do you have a particular role?"

"I look after all aspects of the building that need doing, they come to me and I fix it"

"What are your reasons for working here?"

"Good question, the reason I’m working here, don’t know you may of heard this, many people that work here, they are sent by God. That’s one of the reasons. I look at it is as doing a service for people from all walks of life. Fixing the building when it is broken"

This is Kim.

Her husband took part in the following questions questions, no photograph to show.

"What are your reasons for working at the Crypt"

"Quite simple really, I was a heroin addict for 6 years, homeless for 7, when I came out of prison I ended up at the Crypt. It was the impact of the Crypt, I just wanted to give something back that I volunteered for about 8 months. Started paying me, and that was 7 and a half years ago. I just wanted to give something back."

"What do you gain from working here?" 

"Being here at the Crypt, is like an extended family, there are no judgements, no people thinking you’re a criminal. Here it makes me think, that’s my past, this is my future. That’s how it was put to me"

"You say you were homeless for 7 years?"

"Yes I was, then I met my wife, she actually had her own business when I met her. She left everything for me"

"Do you have any relationship experiences into becoming homeless?"

"Not prior, just more to do with not so much of a good family background, it was safer for me to walk away but I didn’t know anywhere else apart from the streets. I struggle sometimes because my wife’s family has just had a little baby, and it got to a point where I had to walked out the house when we were seeing them. She asked me why I kept walking out, and just seeing the way they were with they’re own son was almost alien to me. There’s something wrong. It just took a while to realise that actually having a loving family is normal, just took me a while to compute that"

"When you came to the Crypt, what did they do in order to do that transition for you?"

"They just allowed me to be me. That’s the best way I can describe it, there was not judgement"

"When you were homeless, did you have any opinions on how clothing represented you, or not really thought about it?"

"I suppose in some ways you do, you want to be clean and have clean clothes. But a lot of people that beg, you have to be dirty in order to make your money"

"They make themselves dirty on purpose?"

"Yes, professional beggars, I was never a professional beggar but on some days I would make roughly 80-90 quid within 4 hours. Why the Crypt have set up a scheme called ‘Give me Some Credit’ and its a book of vouchers, where you buy for a fiver and if you see someone begging, you can bring them down here to have a wash and staff that will help. When people come here they expect it to be dark and dingy, but it is not like that at all. It’s just about building these people, there are no judgements"

"Did you say you met your wife here?"

"I met my wife when I was on the streets, it is strange in a way, my wife she once went to a library called ‘Entertaining Angels’ which is the Crypt’s book, and she had a sense that she would end up working here. She said when she first saw me, she looked in my eyes and it was like I knew her. At the time it took 4 and a half years to register, I was in prison when she was visiting me and the guy in the cell I was sharing with said said "She likes you" and I went “Get lost we’re just friends” but on her next visit, as she was leaving, it was the way she looked at me. I looked up, and I kissed her.”  

Phil
works at leeds becket, 2 days works in clinical capacity so one of the days i work here and i also work in a clinic, a regular physio clinic, also one of the days i do exercise classed for people with parkinson disease or obstructive airways disease.
the reason i got involved here was because we know that the health care needs for homeless people are not met they drop out of the system and they often have no address..their health is often low priority because they're dealing with and fighting mini battle fronts, now this is not unique to this country, it is the same in many countries, in america they have set up specialist services for homeless people...and they plough a lot of money into developing alternative routes into health care, its called health care for the homeless...

knowing that their needs are not met, my involments didn't come directly though the crypt, i am part of a group and we raise money for simon on the streets, and they work with street rough sleepers, i went to the director and i said here we are at the university we've got all these students, we know the health care needs, can we not do something. yet the streets is not the right place to do it, so i then came to the crypt and i said we can give some pyshio therapy services meeting their physical needs, would you like me to come and try and set up a service? Kim, said, yeah, when can you come..now that was just over 3 years ago, i come from about 11.30 till about whenever we see whoever we see. (every Monday). we do different things we treat people, asses people, move people on, ring up places and say look this person needs to get back into the service, send people to the GP, fill in forms for people to get bus passes, supply walking aids, supply a lot of dressings for people with foot problems cos a lot of them walk, alot of them are underweight not over weight which is not typical the population where our problem is obesity, its the opposite. and one big thing is, is enable them to feel like they matter, because what you know and what you've find out, despite what comes here (points to her face) whatever front they present, they invariably have got a very low self worth, and they've been massively massively appressed, disadvantaged in all sorts of ways, their social backgrounds are very disadvantaged, you know one said you know waking up on christmas morning in a shop door, he's about 20 years old.
they deal with problems the general population get, and they get stuff thats particularly related to their lifestyle, and like they might get stuff to do with joint problems because of injecting the drugs, and somethings the numerological problems like alcoholic nuropathies, sometimes just regular stuff that you would get like tennis elbow, frozen shoulder neck pain, anything like that.
usually see on average about 7 sometimes 8 people, theres no appointment system. thats good because there often very aratic attenders.
i have also brought in other people, one thing is pediatrist, because often the have foot problems and they can't cut there toenails, their toenails are gruesome. and they need socks and they need clean underwear you know. so your looking out for them at all sorts of levels. and so i bring in a pediatrist who will give he's time voluntarily, bought in occupational therapy, they have shown a interest to come as well, and they're gonna get involved with the student placements.

they have 3 beds, for people who are homeless in hospital ,can access those beds, i mean they need good aftercare, i mean people who have been in hospital with hnewmonia and a punctured lung and there coming out, they can't go back to sleeping under a bridge, and often they thing that pain is normal and you just carry on, but they dont realise, just because they're in that circumstance , oh i just got to put up with the pain, whereas if you represent them to the gp with letters. we have one man now who is waiting to get he's hip replaced and he said 'if it wasn't for you, i would just be here with the pain'.

so those 3 beds in the hospital are absolutely wonderful...i don't know a project in the whole country that are doing this.
what id like to do is get a lot more physio, giving there time.

sometimes people can be quite depressed and suicidal, so you've got to be sensitive, sometimes i had to alert members of staff and say look this person is desperate, or they've got unmet needs, physical needs where they get some kind of food package or they might not have clothes to change into.

you've got to think of it as down stream and up stream, the more you can catch with the problem earlier on,the better.
if you just worked it out in health care costs, like i volunteer, but i think if there was paid services in place it would be a great investment.