John Galvin - a housing legend retires. Jeremy Porteus reflects…
On behalf of everyone at the Housing LIN, I want to wish, John Galvin, the unassuming and legendary Elderly Accommodation Counsel (EAC) CEO, a very happy retirement.
I first got to know John in the late 1990s when I was a Corporate Strategy Manager at Anchor Trust. I had previously managed a North London Housing Aid Centre, and therefore shared a common bond in the importance of publicly accessible, impartial housing information and advice (A&I). We were also both members of the Housing for Older People’s Development Group (or familiarly known as HOPDev), which, several decades on, thanks to the vision of Sue Adams, is now called the Housing & Ageing Alliance and hosted by the Housing LIN website. At that time, we worked closely with Steve Ongeri at The Housing Corporation (now Homes England) on several of their early Innovation and Good Practice grant-funded research projects where A&I was central. Steve later went on to become an EAC Trustee.
My own connection with John and EAC grew stronger when I joined the Department of Health's Change Agent Team to lead on housing with care nationally and set up the Housing LIN to create an integrated housing, health and adult social care practitioner network to maximise the adoption of government's rolling Extra Care Housing capital programme and provide professionals access to free learning activities and improvement to support successive bidding rounds. For nearly 10 years, until the then government pulled the plug, EAC hosted the Housing LIN and provided administrative support first with Alex Billeter and then Jerome Billeter. The professional and family connection remains strong to this day.
John was and is a great friend of the Housing LIN, and after we became independent of government generously continued to host us in their small office in Charity Tower, Vauxhall. This helped us find our feet. Since then, we have supported EAC’s FirstStop programme, jointly worked on the early version of SHOP@ - our housing for older people strategic market analysis tool, and more…. And then nearly 30 years on, he and I were formally reunited when we were both invited by the government to become members of the Older People's Housing Taskforce, chaired by Professor Julienne Meyer. With his vast knowledge and experience, John co-led and contributed to the chapter on A&I, a key component of the resultant 2024 Taskforce report and its findings and recommendations.
I will miss John considerably as EAC moves into a new era with Emma Webster now at the helm. However, John's footprint is stamped right across our sector. And as AI advances and new data sharing transforms A&I, he provides a lasting reminder of why access to freely available, high-quality housing information and advice is vital in enabling older people make informed decisions about their housing options in later life.
You’re a legend, John!