Trevor Marsh of St George's Crypt's Faith Lodge talks to LAF about the changing needs in the city, and running a family project. A dry house hidden away at the bottom of Blenheim Grove… 

he Crypt imposed the rule on the project that the clients at Faith Lodge should not drink or be intoxicated on the premises, and Trevor said the only way to ensure this was to have someone on the premises 24 hours a day. Trevor Marsh, who joined St George's in 1982 and now runs Faith Lodge said: "It was to be a dry environment. We could guarantee it was dry as we were living there."

"If there was one place you wanted to be if you were serious about stopping drinking you would come here, because there is someone here. It has got that reputation."

St George's also has a damp house at Regent's Terrace. Trevor said: "There has been a big switch in emphasis to drug users, the press are very interested in that. Alcohol problems have always been there and won't go away, the alcoholics are still there." The current site of Faith Lodge on Blenheim Grove, is the fourth incarnation of the service, which was previously based in other properties owned by St George's. Faith Lodge began after the vicar working at St George's night shelter started to bring Crypt clients back to his house, and supporting them there.

"Alcohol problems have always been there and won't go away, the alcoholics are still there."

It was later managed by someone living on the premises, and then moved to a separate building. The management at St George's decided they wanted more continuity in the service, and Trevor took over with his wife and now also his daughter. Trevor said: "I was to manage Faith Lodge and it was to be my home." He and his wife moved out of Faith Lodge just over five years ago, but the service remains staffed 24 hours a day. There are now plans for using part of Faith Lodge as semi-independent flats for those ready for a little more independence, and also two independent flats on the premises.

"You can put a lot of work into somebody and it can go down the drain but on other occasions you see the successes which is what keeps you going."

"We try to engender a family atmosphere. I say this is a home into which you are being invited and we try to keep that family atmosphere and to varying degrees it works." He said with the atmosphere they had worked to develop people were more likely to keep it clean. Trevor said: "There's that much more respect and they are supportive of each other because of that concept. "Over the 21 years I have been here we do not see many of them back into the system, which either means they have moved away or made a go of it."

He continued: "When I came for the interview, Stanley Raven, the then general secretary said to me I have got to understand in order to do this job I have to have an infinite capacity to be disappointed.

"You can put a lot of work into somebody and it can go down the drain but on other occasions you see the successes which is what keeps you going."