Health Providers Against Poverty (HPAP)

Welcome to the developing website of Health Providers Against Poverty!

Health Providers Against Poverty is a group of physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, dietitians, health promoters, and other health providers committed to addressing poverty as a health issue. We believe that poverty represents a serious, reversible threat to the health of Ontarians. We work from the well-accepted understanding that poverty is the most powerful known risk factor for ill health.

We have worked to combat our clients’ poverty on both an individual and a societal level. We have participated in clinics to assess the eligibility of over six thousand people living on social assistance for an extra income supplement to improve their health through better nutrition. This has resulted in millions of extra dollars flowing to those people who are most susceptible to the health effects of poverty. We have allied with a variety of other antipoverty organizations, adding our health expertise to the knowledge base of people living in, and working to end, poverty. We have met with, and presented to, provincial cabinet members, MPPs, city councilors, and other policy makers to advocate for our clients who live in poverty, and to raise awareness about the health impacts of poverty.

In order to avert an escalation of the current health crisis caused by poverty in Ontario, those at most risk must be given immediate relief by raising social assistance rates by at least the 40 per cent they have dropped since 1995.

Two steering committee members appeared at the City of Toronto consultation on social inclusion to make recommendations on income security which we believe need to be included in the City's Poverty Reduction Strategy