nothin HANH Smoking Ban Going Citywide | New Haven Independent

HANH Smoking Ban Going Citywide

Gatling in a soon-to-end smoking zone.

Lifelong smokers Bruce Gatling and Gerald Smith not only puff away at their one and two-pack-a-day Newport cigarette habits in their apartments, they also smoke out on the terraces and benches of their senior public-housing tower on Orange Street.

The Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH)‘s Board of Commissioners voted unanimously last week to adopt the policy, following a federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) mandate.

That means it’s for all residents, staff, guests, vendors too, everyone who comes onto the properties,” said HANH Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton.

HANH has already instituted no smoking policies at three of its 25 sites: Monterey Place and the Quinnipiac Terrace and Rowe apartents. It will now make the ban citywide in response to regulations issued for all housing authorities by then federal housing Secretary Julian Castro in 2015.

The policy covers all properties and grounds, public as well as tenants’ private apartments to create a smoke-free environment.

To quote from the policy itself: Tenants, members of tenant’s household and their guests shall not smoke anywhere in the interior or exgterior space rented by tenant. This includes but is not limited to, bedrooms, hallways, kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms, patios, balconies, and unit entryway areas. This shall also include the common areas, community rooms, or adjoining grounds of such building.”

Gatlilng gives Smith a buck to go out and bring him back some Newports, for later.

That was both a surprise and not a surprise to Gatling and his friend Smith, who talked to a reporter just before he went out from the lobby of the Charles T. McQueeney Apartments on Orange Street to go buy some Newports.

Smith, who began smoking at age 16, is now a two-pack-a-day man. He said he had heard about the coming rules, including a perimeter area of some 25 feet from the buildings, within which the smoking ban would be implemented according to the policy adopted Tuesday night.

Neither he nor Gatling had yet heard about the penalties to be imposed if the policy is violated: A verbal warning from the property manager for a first violation; a written warning and referral to cessation programs for a second violation; a $25 fine applied to a tenant’s account for a third violation, and a $50 fine for a fourth.

If the smoker is just not stopping, a fifth violation carries a $75 fine and a formal notice of lease violation that could result in an eviction proceeding against the household.”

Gatling demonstrates one of his cig concealment moves.

HANH Executive Office Manager Robin Miller-Godwin said the aim is to engage residents in education, cessation programs, and counseling, and achieve the smoke-free goal without the police.”

Listening to Gatling describe his and his friends’ smoking habits, you may conclude that that goal will be a tall mountain to climb.

I smoke and I don’t appreciate them telling me I can’t smoke in my house,” said Gatling, who has been living at McQueeney for eight years.

Sitting in the lobby recovering from recent foot surgery, he recalled that HANH officials had come by in months past with flyers alerting folks to the upcoming policy. He said that in general people at McQueeney do not smoke in the lobby, public rooms, or hallways.

We knew this was coming. We just didn’t know where or how,” he said.

If he can’t continue to smoke on the terrace and on the benches in front of the building, Gatling said, I’m just gonna take a walk” right beyond the perimeter.

He expressed skepticism about cessation programs. I quit once for five months,” he said, but permanently giving up smoking will never happen.”

And he questioned enforcement s effectiveness if someone like himself goes out on his balcony or into his bathroom to smoke. People that smoke always find a way to duck the system. They get air freshener. They smoke in the bathroom. Then they’re going to say you can’t have air freshener!” he declared.

You can’t buy incense! Now you’re really getting into people’s lifestyles.”

DuBois-Walton and Miller said tenant councils have been wholly supportive of the policy

Non-smoker Maybry: On board.

So are many residents like committed non-smoker Patricia Maybry. She’ has lived in McQueeney for five years. She called the new policy a good rule.”

You find cigarette butts in the hallway, on the window sills, and they can cause a fire,” she said.

Maybry’s concern about fire is, in fact, an additional reason offered for the policy in the official document that was approved at last Tuesday’s board meeting: The purpose is to mitigate the irritation and known health effects of second hand smoke. To decrease the risk of smoking related fires to property and personal safety and also to reduce costs of fire insurance for a non-smoking-free building.”

Miller-Godwin knows there’s a lot of work ahead to meet the mid-summer deadline. Signs need to be put up and perimeter lines created. And, of course, lots of outreach to tenants like Gatling and Smith. We have January to June” to do the education,” she said.

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