Officials weigh smoking ban at Charleston-area public housing

Next year, the federal government will decide if public housing residents should be allowed to smoke in their homes, but Lowcountry housing officials arent too fired up about such a change.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development unveiled a new rule last month that would ban smoking inside almost 1 million public housing units across the country, as well as common areas and administrative offices on public housing property.

The proposed rule is the latest effort to limit the ill effects of secondhand smoke. A campaign to end smoking in public housing began to stir in 2009, and since then, about 600 housing authorities have voluntarily banned indoor smoking.

The experiment has begun here on a small scale, according to Charleston Housing Authority Executive Director Don Cameron.

When the authority built 12 new public housing units on Reid Street several years ago, the authority decided that neither its residents nor their guests would be allowed to smoke there. The decision was based in part because the units were designed to be healthy and environmentally friendly.

We wanted to find out how big a management headache this is going to be, Cameron said. That demonstration now is over three years old, and weve had no issues. ... We didnt have He said, she-said problems or conflicts between neighbors.

Still, Cameron said he isnt eager to extend the ban to the approximately 1,400 other public-housing units.

And North Charleston Housing Authority Director Gary Scott said his agencys board currently allows smoking in its units but may discuss the a smoking ban next month. We havent really made any decisions, Scott said.

While Cameron noted he is a former smoker well aware of nicotines addictive power, he said his philosophy is to give residents the same legal autonomy as others in the city.

When you rent something in a legal sense, everything from the door in is yours, he said. The federal government is saying it is, but its not really true. ... It raises the issue of smoking to almost a criminal level.

Landlords may prohibit smoking in their rental properties if they clarify the ban in their lease.

Supporters of the ban said it would protect residents from secondhand smoke and also would reduce both maintenance costs and the likelihood of fire.

Cameron said he recalls about two fires in recent years that began because of residents smoking in bed, but Scott said he was unaware of any in North Charleston.

Megan Hicks, executive director of Smoke Free South Carolina, said her group will write to the government to encourage the change because of its potential positive effect on public health.

She also said she hopes the change would make private landlords more likely to follow suit.

Research shows there is a market for smoke-free housing, she said. We hope this moves that trend forward.

Its unclear how many of the Lowcountrys public housing residents currently smoke, but Cameron foresees another problem meeting the needs of smokers who are qualified for public housing but cant quit their habit.

Are we going to say, Youre homeless and income qualified, but we cant house you? he said. There are problems with that.

The public housing debate comes as a growing number of South Carolina smokers are successfully seeking help to quit.

The states free Quitline service has helped more than 86,000 people since it began in 2006, including 19,300 in the most recent year. Among those, the quit rate has increased to 32 percent.

Reach Robert Behre at (843) 937-5771 or at twitter.com/RobertFBehre.



http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20151225/PC16/151229585/1177/officials-weigh-smoking-ban-at-charleston-area-public-housing