ACLU, public housing residents want to extinguish proposed smoking ban

If adopted, the new rule would affect neardo youly a million households.

– U.S. Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday a proposed rule to make all public housing smoke-free.

The proposal would ban the smoking of cigarettes, cigars and pipes in all public living units as well as indoor common areas, offices and outdoor areas within 25 feet of public housing buildings.

“We have a responsibility to protect public housing residents from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, especially the elderly and children who suffer from asthma and other respiratory diseases”, HUD Secretary Julian Castro said in a statement.

HUD officials say it would save taxpayers $153 million each year in health and renovation costs, as well as fire loss and damages.

The public will have 60 days to comment on the proposal and if passed, housing agencies will have up to 18 months to adopt the smoke free policy.

Since more public housing authorities have adopted smoke-free policies in recent years, a few tenants have argued that the restrictions violate their rights and liberty to do what they want in their homes.

Decades after the federal government stopped fairly funding public housing, NY City Housing Authority roofs leak and mold grows aplenty while 400,000 residents hang on as 70-year-old buildings reach the end of their usable lives.

Though talks of the ban have many heated up, others feel the ban would be a blessing for those who do not smoke.

And whatever happened to the rights of people to do whatever they want in their own homes as long as they aren’t breaking the law, opined others. The new regulation would apply to all of the NY City Housing Authority’s developments.

In their proposal, federal housing officials said that the surgeon general’s office had concluded that there was no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke and that separating smokers and nonsmokers, building ventilation and cleaning the air could not eliminate exposure. Perez said. “So yeah, I’m all for it”. How are you going to know they’re smoking in the house? A few housing authorities across the country have already gone ahead with smoking bans.

But the restriction on smoking inside dwellings would pose challenges to overburdened public housing agencies, which could face resistance from a few residents resentful of losing control of what they can do in their own homes.

Linda Brown, who lives in Dizenzo Court, a public housing building for seniors on Beech Street, said she also liked to have the smoke-free environment.

Shauna Sorrells, director of public housing programs for HUD, told The NY Times in 2011 that one reason HUD hadn’t yet required a nationwide ban was that the mandate could result in families being evicted because one member smoked.

The Times also notes how the rule could worsen existing struggles for public housing agencies trying to enforce rules already in place.

“They ain’t going to evict me”. “I think it works well”. You wouldn’t be able to smoke in the hallway, either.