Public housing has 18 months to comply with federal smoking ban
A new federal rule will require all public housing developments across the country to put smoking bans in place if they haven’t already done so.
Recently, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its final ruling that institutes smoke-free public housing.
The rule requires each public housing agency to draft and administer a smoke-free policy, banning the use of tobacco in living units, indoor common areas in public housing and administrative office buildings.
Those public housing agencies that have not yet put a smoking ban in place have 18 months to draft and execute the policy.
Two such agencies are the Housing Authority of the County of Greene, which has five sites consisting of 284 apartments in the county; and the Fayette County Housing Authority, which has 21 sites consisting of 1,340 units in the county.
Lois Mocniak, the executive director for the Housing Authority of the County of Greene, said they don’t have a smoking ban in place in their apartments, just the common areas.
“We have a lot of reading to do on it — a lot of changes,” said Mocniak, adding they they will begin working on the policy to amend their leases, offer the residents a chance to take classes to quit smoking and plan to notify the residents in January of the coming change. “We’ll be working on it real soon.”
“We don’t have a non-smoking policy,” said Mark Yauger, the executive director of the Fayette County Housing Authority. “We’re developing one.”
Although Yauger said he sees the point of view of resident smokers, he said the many advantages include possibly getting a better price on property insurance and saving money on the turnaround on a unit after a smoker has moved out.
Mocniak said she has had numerous complaints from residents about the smell of their neighbor’s smoke, one complaint coming in as recently as a week ago.
For now, she hasn’t heard anything from the smoker’s side of the issue, but that could change.
“The smokers aren’t going to be happy about it, but they always can go outside,” Mocniak said.