It won’t be easy- more than 400,000 people live in large public housing developments across the five boroughs.
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“People like me, I have disabilities, and I have a problem walking, and if I can’t smoke in my apartment, at least, I can go on my back porch and smoke”, said Dennis Clayton, a public housing resident. “Once you close the door, that’s your home”, she said.
“I think it is completely bogus”, said Devante Barrett, a 24-year-old non-smoker who lives in the Elliot-Chelsea Houses in Manhattan’s gritty Chelsea neighborhood. The public has 60 days to offer their thoughts on the rule. Torres says he doesn’t smoke in his apartment, but that the proposed law is going “too far”. And it’s hard to evict people from a facility created specifically to house people who don’t have anywhere else to go.
Over at 360 Orange St., which doubles as HANH headquarters and the Charles McQueeney tower for the elderly and disabled, a recently arrived resident, Erasma Lopez, pronounced the idea of a ban on smoking in public areas good, but insufficient. Perez said. “So yeah, I’m all for it”. While fewer than 4 percent of rentals listed on StreetEasy are located in buildings with smoke-free guarantees, according to the Times, those units rent for $1,000 to $1,300 more than comparable apartments that lack such protections. There’s clearly a need for addressing this issue head-on. “We just want to make our properties smoke-free so they’re safer for everyone”. She’s turned off by the lingering smell of secondhand smoke in the hallways and common areas of her building. That’s why we at the Baltimore City Health Department applaud HUD’s decision to eliminate smoking in public housing.
Most of all, many asked how such a ban would be enforced and whether it should be. Banned by her grandmother from smoking in the apartment, she sneaks cigarettes in the stairwell, she said, and will continue to do so. Especially those who smoke.
The agency called for public comment on the rule, which would require public housing agencies across the country to ban smoking inside and within 25 feet of housing and administrative buildings as a term of residents’ leases.
“Tenants who don’t comply and continue to smoke could face possible eviction”, Cabrera said. It’s an intrusive rule, she said. The change would take effect within 18 months of the rule becoming final.
Most of the money _ $94 million _ would come from declines in tobacco-related health care.
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“In this particular community, not only are you not allowed to smoke outside, but you can’t smoke inside either”, Billi Griffin, a former smoker said.
