I am a smoker, and this is ridiculous. It’s absolutely about public health. Smoking has many deleterious health effects. In fact, there’s really nothing on schedule I that is as bad for you.
I am agnostic on banning it in public housing. I smoke outside my own house only, so there’s something to be said for keeping public housing from smelling. On the other hand, I’m not likely to be robbed or assaulted outside my house in my very safe subdivision.
As a property owner of a condo that we lease to tenants, we have a clause in the lease that there is to be no smoking inside the condo. The current tenants do not smoke but past tenants used the back patio or front porch and we generally had no issues.
The property we own as our home is in a mixed economic neighborhood, $200-500K houses, fair market-value rentals, and lower economic/Section-8 housing are co-mingled here. What I see frequently in the summer from the lower income/Section-8 rental units is that the renters really do not care about the neighborhood, etc. The tenants will sit out on the stoop and smoke/drink all evening and toss their empties and cigarette butts everywhere. The sidewalks, lawns, and any landscaping looks like a trash-dump. The littering annoys me to no-end. I don’t begrudge them for smoking or drinking, but for not caring about the neighborhood and their environment. For me this is the first thing I think about - if they make it actually illegal to smoke inside government subsidized housing the neighborhoods will probably see an even larger up-tick in littering and public nuisance issues.
Beyond that issue, I have no problem with a property owner putting clauses in leases against particular behaviors. If the property owner is the government, or government subsidies are off-setting the costs of fair-market value for the rent, then I do not object at all. In the case of privately owned but government subsidized rentals, the property owner can choose to conform and continue to receive government subsidies or they can stop taking the subsidies and start getting tenants under new leases with their preferred terms.
The one thing I would add on the topic of smoking and government restrictions. If the government is so damn headstrong set on saving us from ourselves (health risks, 2nd hand smoke, etc.) then make the product illegal. Stop selling it, taking tax dollars, etc. Until then, let people make their own informed decisions. Hammer a tobacco company that falsely advertises or does not disclose the risks but leave the public to their own choices.
MeanJoe
Next up, smoking will be banned in vehicles traveling on public highways.
That works for me. I’m fed up with my vehicle being pelted with flaming ciggie butts. Not to mention the millions ending up in sewers.
I’ve been driving for mumble31 yearsmumble now and not ONE TIME can I ever recall a cigarette butt being thrown from a vehicle and striking my car. Yet somehow it happens to you with enough frequency that you’re fed up? 
As for ending up in sewers, while I generally agree with you, I’d really prefer to see all the fast food trash, tires, trash bags, broken pieces of furniture, etc., cleaned up on the roadways before I’d worry about a 1.5" long cigarette butt. But again, I generally agree about the liter issue but they just don’t ping high on my radar compared to the rest.
I’ve had it happen a few times, it happens, people are clueless or careless.
I don’t understand the rationale for singling out public-housing residents. Why should it be less OK to smoke there than in a private home?
Because it’s paid for by the government. So the rationale is that they are the landlords and we already allow landlords to ban smoking in their buildings.
How would this be enforced?
Probably not super easy but not impossible. You recieve complaints or the superintendent notices and you run an inspection of the unit.
I guess my question is that if the government thinks it’s a good idea to ban smoking in public housing, why doesn’t it extend that ban to everybody’s home?
The government isn’t everybody’s landlord. It doesn’t have a stake in whether smoke damages private residences.
The government also has more control over public health on land it owns.
You are asking if they can do one thing that has a legitimate rationale and is politically feasible, why don’t they just do this other thing that would be a legal quagmire and would face serious political opposition.
I don’t think it needs to be codified as law. To implement would only require that it be written into the lease agreement, just like any other landlord has the option to do.
Not that I think government has the balls to kick someone out of “last chance” housing for the offense of smoking…
“Alcohol abuse that interferes with other tenants’ health, safety, or right to peacefully enjoy the property” is a valid reason for eviction in many public housing leases and has been for years.
As a landlord, I get it. I do allow smoking. They have fewer choices, they stay longer, much longer. Relatively speaking
But this is going to be crazy for those buildings. The grounds around the buildings will be littered like crazy. And if they provide ash tray, they’ll be vandalized or worse. And they’ll need cleaned out if they stay. And people will smoke out their windows to avoid the odor in the house (ha-ha), then pitch the butts on passers by. I can think of other problems, so I wish them luck.
My friend rolls her own cigs. It only costs her $1 a pack.
We have a large public housing complex here. It used to be really run down and was nicknamed the chicken coops. They remodeled the entire complex a few years ago and now they inspect each unit once a month. There is no smoking allowed in the units.
I know it’s the rule you have to abide by to live there, but I would really hate having someone walk through my home once a month, doing an inspection.
I would prefer no smoking in apartments, personally. There’s no way to keep the smoke just in your apartment.
Same thing happened at my last apartment. I couldn’t figure out why it stank like a nightclub at 6 am under my bathroom sink. It seriously smelled like 12,000 smokers all hung out there every night. And smoke smell would come up through the electrical outlets. I thought I was going crazy for a couple of months, until I finally realized that the woman who lived underneath me was an old-school chain smoker.
After she died (not in the apartment), literally, they had to gut her apartment. The maintenance team threw out everything – carpet, over the patio rail; cabinets, over the patio rail; blinds, brown, and over the patio rail.
The difference between a private and an apartment building is that it interferes with the quality of life of the other occupants. What I don’t understand is the fuss that is being made over vaping. They claim that vaping will lead to smoking. But why would it if smoking in any public place is getting harder and harder?
I predicted more than 20 years ago when the smoking bans were becoming ubiquitous that it would end with tobacco made illegal. I certainly don’t want to see that happen, but there is a stronger argument for that than for marijuana. My only question is how it impacts others.