NYCHA Must Help Tenants Quit Smoking To Cope With Ban, Bill Says

NEW YORK, NY — City Council members want the New York City Housing Authority to do more to help tenants quit smoking before they're barred from lighting up at home this summer.

A U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rule banning smoking in federally funded public-housing complexes will take effect July 31. NYCHA says it's working out how to enforce the rule and has already started to spread the word about it among residents.

But Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) wants NYCHA to take a more active role in encouraging tenants to kick the habit. He introduced a bill Wednesday to force the housing authority to create a plan to educate tenants about the dangers of smoking and the benefits of quitting.

The bill, co-sponsored by Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Queens), would require the housing authority to create an anti-smoking outreach plan by this September that would include "educational materials" and public events. NYCHA would have to report on the plan's successes and failures annually starting next year.

"Smoking kills & more must be done to promote smoke free environments," Torres said in a Twitter post Wednesday.

HUD's December 2016 rule bans smoking in apartments and common areas and within 25 feet of any public-housing complex or office building.

NYCHA is still developing its plan to enforce the ban, but is working toward a "graduated enforcement" approach with "escalated" warnings and consequences for smokers breaking the rules, officials said. Residents and NYCHA staff alike will be able to report violations.

NYCHA has briefed tenant groups several times on the policy, officials said. The housing authority and the city Department of Health held nine meetings about smoking last spring that drew 172 people and launched another series of 70 meetings with residents last week.

"NYCHA and (the Department of Health) have partnered together since HUD’s smoke-free policy was first announced to engage the community, provide cessation program awareness to residents and educate the public housing community on how this policy can be part of a broader healthy housing conversation," Jasmine Blake, the housing authority's press secretary, said in a statement.

The housing authority commissioned an advisory group last summer that recommended helping residents enforce the smoking ban themselves and creating "strong social networks" for residents to talk to each other about the effects of secondhand smoke, NYCHA officials said.

(Lead image by Ralf Kunze via Pixabay)