A Brockville man is drawing a lot attention after erecting a large sign on his house saying he's got to choose between heat and home.

Rick Russell says he's been squeezed into a spot no senior should experience.

Russell’s sign may be unusual but his situation certainly isn't as more seniors find themselves hovering at the poverty line, trying to hang on.

His truck is for sale. Now his rented house is back on the market as Rick Russell figures out how his next stage in life will play out. The 68-year-old erected a sign on his house this week saying “"Another senior loses home due to high energy costs”, almost as a warning to others this is what might await them.

“It's the same situation many seniors have,” says Russell, inside his small rented home on Ormond Street in Brockville, “they are losing their home because they can't pay their utilities bills.”

Russell, who's worked as a painter all his life, says he can't keep pace with the rising cost of utilities and rent. He's fallen behind in payments and now has some tough choices to make.

“I either have a house with no heat or heat with no house.”

“These are the kinds of stories we are hearing in rural Ontario,” Ontario PC Energy Critic Todd Smith said in Toronto today, “and now we are hearing similar stories in the suburbs as well. People can't afford to pay their hydro bills.”

Steve Clark is the Conservative MPP for Leeds-Grenville, “Energy poverty is real. People are choosing between heating their homes and eating and the government has to do something.”

Russell admits it's not just the cost of hydro that is financially crippling him. It's relying on a meagre pension that he had hoped would cover his cost of living, combining Canada Pension Plan with Old Age Security.

Brockville's mayor says his area is aging rapidly with nearly1 in 5 residents over the age of 65, much higher than the national average. And many, David Henderson says, have no pension, including him.

“We are going to have more challenges of people living alone with declining income with CPP as their only income or OAS and living in bigger homes by themselves.”

Russell is pleased his sign is shining some attention on this issue hoping something may come of it for other seniors. As for him, he's not worried.

“I’m an independent guy, have been all my life,” he says.

Queen's Park resumed sitting today with the focus for the spring session on hydro costs. The Liberals are looking at cutting those costs; too late, though, for Rick Russell.