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Local authority hot on smoking ban

New rule aims to keep public housing smoke-free

Scott Brown isn’t a smoker.

“Smoking is bad for you — it kills you,” Brown said Wednesday. “I don’t like secondhand smoke, (either): It bothers me.”

Still, the Altoona Housing Authority board member thinks the Department of Housing and Urban Development went too far Wednesday with its ban on smoking in all public housing, starting in 18 months.

“I don’t see how HUD has the authority or right to regulate what people do that is legal in their own residence,” Brown said. “Where they hell do they get off telling you what to do in your home?”

HUD touts the ban on all lit tobacco products in all living units, indoor common areas, administrative offices and even outdoors within 25 feet living or office spaces as a safety and savings measure.

“HUD’s smoke-free rule is a reflection of our commitment to using housing as a platform to create healthy communities,” HUD Secretary Julian Castro said in a news release.

The ban will protect residents — especially children — from secondhand smoke, while helping to prevent fires and saving public housing agencies $94 million in health care costs, $43 million on removal of smoking residue during occupancy changeovers and $16 million in fire damage, according to the news release.

“Every child deserves to grow up in a safe, healthy home, free from harmful secondhand cigarette smoke,” Castro said.

The Altoona authority will comply, according to Executive Director Cheryl Johns.

But HUD has not only overstepped, it has created an administrative problem, potential ill feelings among residents and an unfair imbalance, according to Johns.

“We’ll do whatever we (must),” Johns said. “But I don’t think this (ought to be) a HUD issue.”

Enforcement will be difficult, she said.

“We don’t have the time to administer or the energy to monitor the halls,” she said.

It would be hard to tell when someone goes out on a balcony to smoke, said authority solicitor Bill Haberstroh.

Johns doesn’t want the ban to encourage neighbors to tell on one another, she said.

The ban is lopsided because it doesn’t extend to privately owned Section 8 homes that host tenants for whom the authority handles housing subsidies, Johns said.

The imbalance is especially egregious when comparing the authority’s Green Avenue and 11th Street public housing towers, where smoking will cease, with City Hall Commons, a Section 8 high rise where it won’t, she said.

The ban will probably generate lawsuits, Haberstroh predicted.

“I’m sure there will be resistance,” he said.

What about an 85-year-old who’s been smoking since adolescence, he asked.

“Quit smoking or get out,” he said. “(That’s) difficult for me to comprehend.”

The proposed ban will likely discourage some smokers from applying to live in authority public housing and encourage others who dislike secondhand smoke, he predicted.

It may generate requests for accommodation from older or disabled smokers who can’t readily move or go 25 feet away from their buildings every time they light up, Haberstroh said.

Johns will be meeting with her staff to discuss the issues.

She’ll be writing a policy, Haberstroh said. The board will need to adopt it.

Upon adopting the policy, the authority would be committed to enforcement, Haberstroh indicated.

The ban will be incorporated into tenant leases, and violations could lead to evictions, Haberstroh predicted.

HUD has been pushing toward­ the ban since 2009, urging authorities to impose bans voluntarily, according to the news release.

The local authority has discussed the matter for at least two years, declining HUD’s invitation.

But six months ago, Johns spoke with residents about the likelihood of Wednesday’s order.

The ban and the local authority’s opposition highlight an interesting contrast between the liberal tendencies of HUD under the current administration and the conservative tendencies of the local authority.

HUD has pushed for accommodations to protect outliers, such as those with a criminal history and those with disabilities, like hoarding.

Meanwhile, the local authority has resisted, pushing to protect mainstream residents.

“I think there are other, more important things, that HUD needs to focus on besides someone’s right to smoke in their apartment,” Johns said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.

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