On November 17, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed a rule (FR 5597 P02) that would restrict smoking in public housing. A 60-day comment period was released to solicit feedback from external organizations and individuals.
The National Council for Behavioral Health (National Council) developed comments that commend HUD for its attention to the important issue of smoke-free public housing and urged for several modifications to strengthen the rule. Please see the attached file for our full comments.
Overview of the Proposed Rule: The proposed rule would require each public housing agency (PHA) administering public housing to implement a smoke-free policy no later than 18 months from the effective date of the final rule. Each PHA must implement a policy prohibiting lit tobacco products in all living units, indoor common areas in public housing, and in PHA administrative office buildings (in brief, a smoke-free policy for all public housing indoor areas). The smoke-free policy must also extend to all outdoor areas up to 25 feet from the housing and administrative office buildings. HUD proposes implementation of smoke-free public housing to improve indoor air quality in the housing, benefit the health of public housing residents and PHA staff, reduce the risk of catastrophic fires, and lower overall maintenance costs. Approximately 1.2 million adults live in the 700,000 housing units affected by the proposed rule.
For more information on the proposed HUD rule:
- Official Proposal: FR 5597-P-02 Instituting Smoke- Free Public Housing
- Webinar: Home is Where the Heart Is: HUD’s Proposed Rule Restricting Smoking in Public Housing – Tobacco Control Legal Consortium in partnership with National Council