Dave Logan knows it probably won't happen, but he still looks forward to a day when his services won't be needed.

        Mr. Logan, see, is executive director of Prospect House, a 60-bed Price Hill facility for indigent men battling alcohol and drug addiction. He's been there since 1986, director since '89.

        “We just celebrated our 30th year, and we haven't seen a decline in numbers, but we have seen changes. In 1970, it was mostly alcohol addiction. Today, it's a combination alcohol and drugs.

        “The other change is in age. When we started, the average client was in his 50s. Today, he's 27.”

        Mr. Logan, 59 years old and a former college English professor married to Cincinnati stage actress Dale Hodges, knows Prospect from the inside and outside. Like all counselors there, he's a graduate of the program, celebrating 21 years clean and sober.

        “We have four counselors and two trainees, and we're all graduates. I think that accounts for our success. We recently did a seven-month research project tracking graduates from 1990 to 2000 and found 69 percent still clean and sober, far in excess of national averages, though it's tricky comparing us and national because everybody counts differently.

        “I think Prospect works because those of us working here have all seen first hand, and actually lived, what makes it work.”
       

Takes more than 28 days

               What makes it work, he says, is time. Prospect demands a minimum 90-day commitment before it will accept a client. Some stay longer, some six months, some three or four years.

        “That seems long and it is,” says Mr. Logan, “when the industry norm is 28 days. People used to think 28 days would do it. It usually doesn't, because there's no cure. But what happens is someone stays sober 28 days and thinks he's cured. He's not. Cure is an attractive delusion.

        “Something else that seldom works is the managed care notion of three or four days detox, then outpatient treatment. That almost never works with the population we serve.”

        The population Prospect serves is known as “low bottoms” — limited job skills, minimal education, generally indigent, though clients have also included doctors, lawyers and other professionals. But mostly, his are people who have fallen through the cracks, Mr. Logan says, and without Prospect House might have no other chance of recovery.
       

Earning privacy in the compound

               Prospect House isn't really a house. It's a compound. Located on Hawthorne Avenue, the main building is one of those old, sprawling Price Hill homes converted to first floor offices and second floor dorms.

        Next door is a former church and parish house — “the original parish house from Christ Church. Mary Emery had it disassembled, the bricks numbered and then reassembled here early this century.” It's used for common rooms, cafeteria, gym and services. Prospect used to rent it, but now they own it.

        Behind those two, three other houses, also those old sprawling ypes, are converted into something closer to individual living for clients nearing the end of treatment. “As they progress, they earn more privacy in two-, three- or four-man rooms,” Mr. Logan says.
       

Public funding

               Right now, the back yard connecting it all is an overgrown tangle, but won't be for long: A grateful grad, now a successful landscaper, is coming back to landscape everything.

        “That's one thing about our graduates — they don't forget. This porch,” he says, stomping his foot on the stained planks, “was installed by a graduate, too. Finest, heaviest wood available. You could park a Buick on it.”

        Mr. Logan is proud of his graduates and their successes. He's also proud of the financial setup. It's publicly funded — county and state — but taps into private sources.

        Right now he's in the process of setting up a foundation with an endowment that he hopes will make Prospect self-supporting. A raffle offering a week in a St. Lucia beach house is kicking off the drive.

        Clients also kick in.

        “It costs us $45 a day to house a client, and most of that is public money. But after early phases of treatment, clients usually get a job. At that point, we charge $260 to $280 room and board.”
       

The last, best, only chance

               Prospect clients get more freedom than many residential facilities allow. After a settling-in period of about 30 days, they can get jobs. Others go across the street and tend to the bird sanctuary. Others go back to school.

        One thing they don't do is revert to old habits. “It's one of two things that gets you booted.

        “The thing with addiction is it's subtle. You're clean for months or years and you think, "Heck, I can have one beer.' So you do, and nothing happens. Two days later, you think, "I got away with one, maybe I'm not an alcoholic. I'll have two.'

        “That goes on and you go back gradually until it explodes into uncontrolled drinking. Alcoholism is progressive, chronic and potentially fatal.

        “We drive that home every day, at every meeting. No more drinks.”

        The other thing that gets you kicked out is fighting. “You have to understand, this is a stressful process and we have a lot of testosterone around here. The no fighting rule is ironclad.

        “In the past 15 years, we've had to kick out six guys. Twelve since 1976.

        “I think that's because most of our clients realize that this is their last, best and only chance.

        “I heard that a lot from my predecessor (Jim Wood). He retired at age 80, so I figure I have 21 years to go.”

        By which time maybe he'll be obsolete, but he isn't holding his breath.
       

        Call Prospect for info on the St. Lucia raffle: (513) 921-1613. Tickets are available until the end of the month.

Readers Rule: Songs that stick in your head
KIESEWETTER: Sportscaster a must-see in sitcom
Playhouse's 'Nixon' heads to London
DEMALINE: Non-Equity 'Music Man' could hit the wrong notes
'Mattress' doesn't pass CCM inspection
MARTIN: So long, chili champ
World-class beers lie within our own borders
Logan helps indigent men find better lives
PAL Scholarship honors persistence, leadership
Teaching in Kenya a learning experience
Xavier student still has all his marbles
Earle, Carpenter low-key songsmiths
Get to It
Spend evening with jazz, horses