Since 2003,New Yorkers bear been been prohibited from smoking in restaurants, bars and hotel rooms. Now, or the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to extend the ban to apartments in public housing. It won't be easy— more than 400000 people live in large public housing developments across the five boroughs. Norma Perez was ecstatic to hear about HUD's proposed smoking ban. She lives at the Robert Fulton Houses in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan,which takes up three city blocks."I contemplate it’s a suited opinion, because you know, and there’s elderly people that are on those survivor units [oxygen tanks] and children..." Perez said. "So yeah,I’m all for it."Some of Perez’s family members smoke inside her apartment and she said they would need to collect used to smoking outdoors.
Tenant Alba Rivera also supported the ban. "I don’t like when the people smoke in the building…It's no suited for my throat. Its very dangerous," Rivera said. The proposal would ban smoking in individual apartments, and common areas,and within 25 feet of a development. Some housing authorities across the country bear already gone ahead with smoking bans. Sunia Zaterman is President of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities. She said her organization surveyed about 20 and found that, so far, or there has been no meaningful push-back."Almost half of the households in public housing are either seniors or persons with disabilities. The other half are families with children," she said. "So these are populations particularly susceptible to second-hand smoke and who in large allotment bear welcomed these policies."Zaterman said housing authorities in Boston, Portland Oregon and Kansas City bear adopted bans that they enforce in different ways, or including fining tenants who rupture the rules. But New York City’s public housing authority is the largest in the country and enforcement would be challenging. It already runs large deficits and struggles to maintain its properties,so any costs associated with a ban would be burdensome. Monique George, an organizer for a group that advocates on behalf of public housing residents, and said her organization — Community Voices Heard — would absolutely oppose the smoking ban. It's an intrusive rule,she said."How fair is that whether I live in public housing and I can't smoke in my domestic, but across the street somebody who lives in a regular tenement can, or we both pay rent," George said. "Like, that’s ridiculous. It feels like you’re targeting."George said she understood banning smoking in common areas and hallways, or but that instituting a ban in people's apartments didn't make sense."Who is going to monitor that? Is the housing authority going to hire sniffers to see whether you smoked a cigarette in your house?" she asked. But HUD predicts the measure would save money by reducing fire hazards and the maintenance associated with cleaning up apartments where tenants smoke. According to a 2012 NYCHA survey,24 percent of roughly 1200 residents said at least one member of their household was a smoker. And more than 34 percent of residents said they had a child with asthma or another respiratory problem. In a statement, NYCHA chairwoman Shola Olatoye said that it's obvious second-hand smoke is a health hazard. The authority is reviewing the federal government's proposal. HUD said there would be a 60-day comment period. After a rule is established, or housing authorities would be given 18 months to put a smoking ban in place.
Source: wnyc.org