Island drug retreat Camp Spirit reopened on Monday after an eight month hiatus - but programme coordinator Charles Farmer warned it could be a wasted effort unless more transitional housing is found for clients.

He said drug counselling group Focus ran housing to help reintegrate former addicts back into society but they only had three places.

Without proper housing reformed addicts ran the risk of falling back into their old ways, said Mr. Farmer.

He said: "I am not knocking the Salvation Army, it serves a good purpose but it's reported to us that a lot of people get high at the Salvation Army.

"When a client gets out of treatment and goes there it's just like picking a penny out of the gutter and cleaning it up, just to put it back in the gutter again."

And he said when Camp Spirit clients had finished their three-month spell at Darrell's Island they might find those three places had been taken by people referred by the Salvation Army's Harbour Light centre which also treats drug addicts.

He said: "In 90 days it could be full. Camp Spirit would not be as successful as it is without transitional housing."

He said the National Drug Commission had been so wrapped up trying to revive Camp Spirit after it closed in April last year that transitional housing was put on a back burner.

During the time Camp Spirit was out of action Focus had actually lost one of the transitional housing slots because it was not being used, said Mr. Farmer.

Mr. Farmer refused to say how many clients started Camp Spirit, but he said the programme, which could take 14 referrals, was "not quite full" when it opened yesterday.

The camp takes on hard core addicts who have been through other agencies but have relapsed.

Clients are taught how to recognise things which trigger their addiction.

Gordon Johnson, the executive director of charity drugs funders Council Partners Charitable Trust (CPCT), said transitional housing was imperative to continuing care for recovering addicts.