As mentioned in the AGM Housing Committee Report last year, this has continued to be an active year for the Housing Committee of the Ontario Division of Canadian Pensioners Concerned. The Committee has had 10 meetings during the year. We have been reviewing our current activities and are aware that our Mandate provides a broad base related to housing concerns that must still be addressed.

At the last annual meeting we outlined a follow-up plan based on the experience gained from the partnership experience of the five organizations working together on a research project published in 2007, Holding on to Housing: A Participatory Inquiry into Homelessness among Older People in Rural Areas of Simcoe County. We were most fortunate in having the co-operation and experience of the partners in doing the work required in a project of this nature.

The experience of working with partner organizations led us to develop a partnership of six areas in Ontario who are interested in working together to form a network of individuals and organizations concerned about housing issues and homelessness in rural areas. The areas involved are Simcoe County, Haliburton County, Peterborough County, the City of Kawartha Lakes, North Durham Region and recently the District of Nipissing. The aim is to reach out and provide opportunity for sharing with all rural areas of Ontario. This includes issues of housing for all age groups. We have continued conference calls with representatives from the areas listed above. They want to explore the possibility of sharing information and experiences, to encourage local efforts to develop programs and to improve concerns related to housing and homelessness problems in their areas.

We have developed a primary link known as Rural Housing Issues Network of Ontario (RHINO). Information is available at www.canpension.ca and www.stableandaffordable.com. The latter is an initiative taken by the Wellesley Institute and the Housing Network of Ontario which gathers facts and figures about housing in rural areas of Ontario, along with stories from people around the province, and gives tips for actions that can be taken to enable everyone in Ontario to have a stable and affordable home.

A RHINO steering committee has been formed. It aims to contact organizations and individuals concerned with the provision of emergency, transitional and supportive housing and related services in rural Ontario to add their names to the list of organizations that have already registered their support to give a voice to rural housing issues. It has been noted that the government officials know little about housing needs in rural Ontario.

Conference calls have created a strong and exciting interest in exploring ways of supporting each of the counties in their individual needs and ways of identifying and improving the housing in their own county. The group is presently developing a structural basis as an initial step for developing an ongoing organization that will address RHINO's concerns. We are applying for grants to help us to achieve our aims. We presented our aims on October 22, 2009 at an Advisory Committee on Seniors' Housing meeting of the Ontario Seniors Secretariat and met with other government officials. Recently the RHINO steering committee met with Brian Teefy, Senior Policy Advisor to the Office of the Minister of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. We will be taking part in a Northern Housing Forum in Minden in May.

As Housing Committee Chair I want to express my thanks to the members of the Committee (Don Bellamy, Joan Berndt, Bea Levis, Christine Mounsteven, Dorothy Rivers-Moore, Malcolm Stewart and Margaret Watson) for their untiring support of the work of the committee. I also want to thank Fay Martin, Nancy Smith, Judy Muzzi, John Bennett, Anne Kewley, Rheanon Funnel and Zita Devan for joining with us in developing the RHINO Project.