John Galvin worked in housing from 1975, first with Paddington Churches HA (now Notting Hill Genesis) and then running ‘HALO’, a tenant mobility initiative by Housing Associations. He joined the charity Elderly Accommodation Counsel (EAC) in 1992 and became its Chief Executive in 1996.EAC’s mission is to help older help older people make informed choices about meeting their housing and care needs, and John’s early brief was to improve the quality of information available about housing and care services for older people. EAC now maintains the only national directory of sheltered, retirement and extra care housing as well as similar directories of care homes and home care/support services – all fully searchable on its popular website www.HousingCare.org .He also shaped EAC’s highly regarded Advice Line service, which offers older people and their carers experienced guidance alongside comprehensive and impartial information about the full range of housing, support and care options available to them. In 2005 he took the lead in persuading a number of other national advice services to collaborate with EAC to pilot a joint service known as FirstStop Advice. This grew between 2008 and 2016 to encompass many local ‘housing & care options’ advice services thanks to financial support from the Big Lottery, Government (DCLG) and Nationwide Building Society. Subsequently, however, EAC had to scale down its Advice Line as funding streams were cut or came to natural ends. John’s focus in early 2021, supported by active Trustees, is to start to re-build it. A generous donation from the OneFamily Foundation has made this possible, and recruitment is under way for 3 Housing Options Advisors to staff the service.