Proposed Federal Smoking Ban May Force NYCHA To Crack Down On Residents
A smoking ban has been proposed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), sparking questions about how exactly such a law, if passed, can be enforced by an already strapped-for-cash New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), and how restrictive the government can be in their effort to reduce the health risk of second-hand smoke.
If passed, the ban would prohibit public housing residents, employees, and visitors from smoking inside apartments, common areas, administrative offices, and outside within 25 feet of the buildings. The law would affect almost one million households nationwide — with 400,000 of those people in NYCHA alone.
Affected smoking devices would include cigarettes, cigars, and pipes, but not electronic cigarettes or hookahs, which use waterpipe tobacco. HUD is, however, considering adding those to the list of items/devices banned, pending public comment and agency review.
The public now has 90 days to comment on the proposed ban. If passed, NYCHA would have 18 months to implement an enforcement plan.
Here in New York City, smoking is already prohibited in public buildings and some private ones; NYCHA lobbies and hallways are also already off-limits for smokers. According to NYCHA Chair/CEO Shola Olatoye, existing restrictions have been difficult to enforce, as it is, and would require a decision as to how much/whether to involve police officers.
“For us, the major issue is our ability to enforce something like this.” Olatoye said in a statement to the New York Times. “It should be resident-led, [with NYCHA administrative support and no involvement from the NYPD]. There’s clearly a need for addressing this issue head-on. The question is, how do we do it?
Olatoye noted that in a 2012 residents’ survey conducted by the authority, 14 percent of 1,209 respondents said they smoked, 24 percent said at least one member of their household was a smoker and more than 35 percent said their household included a child with asthma or other respiratory problems.
The smoking ban would affect approximately 4,500 NYCHA residents in the Gowanus area. Area NYCHA housing includes Gowanus Houses, Wyckoff Gardens, and Warren Street Houses.
Current residents in the Fort Greene area have similarly mixed reactions.
Some smokers are indignant, like the 67-year-old Walt Whitman resident who told PIX11 that “I feel like if I want to smoke a cigarette, I want to smoke a cigarette in my house.” And like Gary Smith, 47, also of the Whitman Houses, who told the Times that “What I do in my apartment should be my problem, long as I pay my rent.”
There there are those who see a ban as a good change, both personally and for the community.
Ms. Ng of the Ingersoll Houses told us that she’d welcome a ban and more enforcement because smokers regularly hang out around the lobby and doors of her building, making her struggle to breathe when passing by. “They should fine them for smoking,” she said.
Mary Hudson, a lifelong smoker, actually liked the plan. “That’s good. That’s good. That’s better for me. Maybe I can quit,” Hudson said [to the Pix 11]
In the Ingersoll Houses in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, smoke wafts through the lobby, hallways and even into non-smokers’ homes. “It’s terrible because I have asthma and sometimes I smell it in my bedroom. Then I have to go in the living room,” Ray Bilal said.
Naeema Muhammed has lived on the eighth floor for more than 10 years. Smoke always creeps in. “When you smoke, the smoke actually comes up through those pipe openings,” she said.