HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO)

About HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO)

HALCO, the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario, is a charitable, not for profit community legal clinic based in Toronto that provides free legal services to people living with HIV across Ontario. It grew out of project work carried out from 1991 to 1994 through the ARCH Advocacy Resource Centre for the Handicapped, then began operating as a full service legal clinic in December 1995 in partnership with the AIDS Committee of Toronto and the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation. The clinic started with a staff of three, an executive director/lawyer, a community legal worker and an administrative assistant, and has since grown to a team that includes an executive director/lawyer and six staff lawyers.

HALCO's legal work covers the issues that most often affect people living with HIV, including income security appeals (ODSP, Ontario Works, Employment Insurance and CPP), housing and tenant disputes, immigration and refugee matters, employment law and health law issues such as privacy of medical information. Alongside advice and representation for individual clients, the clinic carries out public legal education and takes part in law reform and community development work. It's governed by a nine member volunteer board on which the majority of members must be people living with HIV, and it's funded in part by Legal Aid Ontario and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.