Local residents react to federal ban on smoking in public housing

Eddie Caperton speaks out against restrictions on smoking in public housing while outside East Lake Courts. Caperton has been smoking Black and Mild cigars for as long as he can remember and feels it's his right to smoke at home.
Eddie Caperton speaks out against restrictions on smoking in public housing while outside East Lake Courts. Caperton has been smoking Black and Mild cigars for as long as he can remember and feels it's his right to smoke at home.
photo A nationwide public housing smoking ban will affect East Lake Courts.
photo CHA Executive Director Betsy McCright

A new rule that will ban smoking in public housing developments nationwide is receiving mixed reviews in Chattanooga.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last week mandated public housing authorities across the nation implement policies prohibiting smoking within the next 18 months.

The rule will affect some 1.2 million public housing units, including the 2,571 units in Chattanooga. Residents who repeatedly violate the ban could be fined and, eventually, evicted. It prohibits lit tobacco products in all living units and indoor common areas, and all outdoor areas within 25 feet of housing and administrative offices. Electronic cigarettes will still be permitted.

Chattanooga Housing Authority Executive Director Betsy McCright said it would be next year before she works on a city-wide ban on smoking in public housing. The effort would include bringing in smoking cessation experts, she said.

However, she said, the rule does not prohibit housing authority residents from smoking. They just can't smoke in public housing units or within 25 feet of the housing and administrative office buildings.

The difficult part of implementing the smoking ban will be enforcement, McCright said.

"From what I read, if they don't comply, we're going to have to move to eviction after a number of infractions. So we're going to have to educate local judges that this is a new rule by HUD. And if we have to move to eviction, that's going to be a mandate from HUD that we do it. Now whether or not the judges uphold it, I don't know."

McCright said the 18-unit Fairmount Apartments has had a smoking ban since 2012. Enforcing it, though, has been a challenge, she said.

"It's not just for the residents, it's for the visitors and family members who come, too," she said. "It's going to be tough, but if it's a mandate from HUD we're obviously going to have to follow it."

Local public housing residents expressed mixed views about the rule.

"It's good and healthy, but the government ain't got no right to make a person just stop smoking because they say so," said Suprenia Moore, a longtime East Lake Courts resident. "You're supposed to ask the people what they want."

Dogwood Manor resident D.A. Ward supports the ban.

"Too many people in senior housing have respiratory problems, and the secondhand smoke is right there when they come out of their apartments," he said.

HUD officials say implementing the rule will improve the health of residents and estimate prohibiting smoking in public housing sites nationally will save $153 million annually, about $94 million in secondhand smoke- related health care, $43 million in renovation expenses and $16 million in smoking- related fire losses.

"We have a responsibility to protect the 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 recent news release.

More than 600 public housing authorities and tribally designated housing entities already have adopted smoke-free policies, according to the federal agency.

"Protecting people from secondhand smoke saves lives and saves money," Tom Frieden, director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Associated Press. "No level of secondhand smoke exposure is safe, and the home is the primary source of secondhand smoke for children."

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids applauded HUD's actions, saying "this bold step" would reduce smoking among groups that suffer the most from tobacco- related death and disease. The organization said HUD also should have gone further and applied the ban to electronic cigarettes, though local housing authorities are permitted to do so.

Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.

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