A sister to the acclaimed Hoxton Hotel is opening in Shoreditch - but staffed by people from Crisis's Skylight Cafe, who are either recently or currently homeless.
The Standard has immediately drawn comparison to Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant chain, which gave unemployed young people a start in the catering industry. Hotel entrepreneur Kurt Bredenbeck's scheme will ensure employees study for formal qualifications while learning 'on the job' (and, importantly, being paid for it - this isn't some intern-style free-labour scam).
The government recently revealed that 415 people were sleeping rough on any one night in London this time last year and the campaign No Second Night Out estimates 40 new people a week start sleeping out in the capital.
The hotel should open in 2013 and will be run on a not-for-profit basis. It's not quite enough to get Bredenbeck into our top 10 London social philanthropists, but we like the way he's thinking.
Photo by TerryWillard from the Londonist Flickr pool
