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Smoke Free Multi Unit Housing –
the Wave of the Future
By Amy Ward - Executive
Director
Living in an apartment and having to smell
cigarette smoke from the apartment next door may be a thing of
the past. In 2004, living in an apartment building in Washington
State did little to provide a separation between smoking
residents and nonsmoking residents, the apartment building was
treated as a whole.
Things weren’t much different in the state
of Michigan in 2004, there were no smoke free apartments or
condos in market-rate or affordable housing. Additionally,
property owners thought it was illegal to have a smoke free
policy for their units, newspapers thought it was illegal to
advertise units as “smoke free”, and most tenants didn’t realize
they had some rights to smoke free housing.
Today, Michigan has tens of thousands of
smoke free market-rate apartments and condos with over 10,000
being “affordable”. In addition 25 public housing commissions have adopted
smoke free policies, many apartment listing services now have
“no smoking” as an amenity item and newspapers now allow “no
smoking” ads. Times have changed.
So why the change?
1) It is legal. There are no laws that
pertain to smoking as a discrimination. Smoking is not a right
under the Civil Rights Act.
2) It is economical. The cost to renovate a
unit that had damage do to smoking indoors can cost between $500
to $8,000. Nationally, smoking in apartments cause; 9% of all
apartment fires, 40% of deaths from apartment fires and 16% of
injuries from apartment fires.
3) The transition is
not difficult. In Benton and Franklin Counties over 56% of the
population see secondhand smoke as “very annoying”.
4) Enforcement isn’t difficult. Adding a
simple legal addendum to the leasing contract is all it takes.
5) Smoke free housing is desirable. In
Benton and Franklin Counties roughly 90% of the population “do
not allow smoking in the home”. This is a behavior that is
supported by a majority.
Smoke free housing is the wave of
the future.
Congratulations to the Housing Authority of
the City of Pasco and Franklin County for making all 80 units
smoke free as of June 1, 2008. In trying to make this a smooth
transition they also provided information for free tobacco
cessation support to those tenants that wanted help in quitting.
For more information on how to make your
housing smoke free go to
www.tobacco-free.net. For help on how to quit smoking call
1-800-QUIT-NOW.
Source:
www.tcsg.org/sfelp/home.htm
For more information contact Amy Ward at
amy@tobacc0-free.net.
Local Housing Enacts Smoke
Free Policy
By Corey Wakeley - Marketing Director
The Housing Authority of the City of Pasco
and Franklin County adopted a smoke free policy for all of their
housing units starting June 1st, 2008. Bobbie
Littrell, Executive Director for the Housing Authority, felt
that by adopting a smoke free policy the health of tenants would
be improved and the physical damage to the units would decrease.
When looking to change policy for the
Housing Authority, Littrell referred to the Nampa Housing
Authority in Idaho which had gone smoke free nearly a year and a
half earlier. Using their guidance with policies and procedures
made for a smooth transition.
To inform tenants of the change, a letter
was sent out in February with an addendum to their lease which
required a signature acknowledging compliance with the smoke
free policy. Feedback from the tenants appeared to come from
those who were nonsmokers confused by why they would be required
to sign the addendum. Since June 1st there have been
few to no complaints or problems with enforcement of the smoke
free policy.
The Housing Authority of the City of Pasco
and Franklin County is the first federally funded facility in the
area to enact a smoke free policy for its tenants.
For more information contact Corey Wakeley
at
corey@tobacco-free.net.
For more information about these
trainings, contact:
Tobacco Prevention Resource Center
2500 NE 65th Avenue
Vancouver, WA 98661-6812 |
Tel: (360) 750-7500
Fax: (360) 750-9142
tprc@esd112.org |
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