The footnotes to the CDC study show a heavy reliance on data from multi-unit housing – which is to say, any sort of apartment building, not just public housing. Because of those efforts, 228,000 public housing units are already smoke-free.
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It is estimated that the change would affect over 700,000 units across the country – 500,000 of which are inhabited by the elderly and those with disabilities. Rather than banning smoking, the federal housing agency “should focus on getting them signed up for Medicaid and registering them to vote”.
If the rule is approved, what is now a privilege now reserved for numerous city’s wealthiest tenants – rules that prevent smoking anywhere in a building – would be forced upon its poorest.
“We really never have had to evict someone over that, but we have had to visit with a few people on it”, she said.
Public opinion in regards to the proposal will be heard for up to 60 days.
Now, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to impose a smoking ban in public housing nationwide because second-hand smoke in one apartment is a threat to the health of residents of others.
HUD’s proposed smoke-free rule will also help reduce damage and maintenance costs associated with smoking.
Since 2009, HUD strongly encouraged Public Housing Agencies to adopt smoke-free policies in their buildings and common areas.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials didn’t exactly say how this would be enforced, but did say it would help save hundreds of thousands of lives over time and improve the lives of children. About 600 housing authorities – comprising about 200,000 households – already ban smoking indoors, and at least two – in Boulder, Colorado, and Springfield, MA – this year added e-cigarettes to their policies, she notes. A ban on smoking would make cleaning and maintaining units far easier and cheaper, in addition to lowering fire risks.
A new nationwide proposal could ban smoking on public housing property.
The proposal is the latest suggestion in a campaign to cut down on secondhand smoke exposure.
Ed Cabrera, a HUD spokesman in San Francisco, said the policy would probably become part of each lease agreement, and enforcement would depend largely on complaints by other residents.
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“This is a natural step to continue to spread the smoke-free protections that started with workplaces and then spread to restaurants and bars”, Michael Siegel, professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University’s School of Public Health, said in an interview.
