NYCHA BUTT BAN
Angst as nat’l no-smoking law takes effect
Stressed out by lead paint and toxic mold threats, public housing tenants now face a new challenge — no more smoking on NYCHA property.
Starting Monday, public housing authorities across the country began enforcing a smoking ban in all apartments and in all outdoor areas within 25 feet of any public housing building. Smoking was already banned in lobbies, stairwells and on roofs.
How that plays out with tenants at NYCHA, the nation's largest housing authority, remains to be seen.
The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) first ordered housing authorities to implement the ban in early 2017 but gave them more than a year to let tenants know about it and figure out how to enforce it. Tenants at NYCHA were sent notices this spring alerting them the change would take place July 30.
The notice requested that they confirm receipt, but only about 50% responded.
“A lot of NYCHA residents are perplexed by the rollout of this policy,” said city Health Department official Javier Lopez, assistant commissioner for systems partnerships.
One reason is that some question NYCHA's prioritizing a smoking ban over fixing up lead paint and mold infestations in their aging apartments. Both problems have resulted in federal oversight due to NYCHA's failures to inspect and abate these potentially dangerous materials.
Shirley Williams, tenant association president of the 20-story 830 Amsterdam Houses in Upper Manhattan, where a no-smoking pilot program has been in effect since 2015, said NYCHA has not completed a top-to-bottom inspection for lead in the more than 50-year-old development that opened before lead paint was banned.
“The tenants get mad now because they're putting an emphasis on this (smoking ban) and not on other things like fixing the lead,” she said. “NYCHA hasn't done their job. And that's the bad part.”
On Monday at the South Jamaica Houses in Queens, tenant Robert Leary, 71, who was hooked up to an oxygen tank, applauded the crackdown as long overdue.
“I love it. I've been complaining for the past three years.”
But Media Williams, 60, who's been living there her entire life, considers the ban to be infringing on tenants' rights to privacy.
“I think it's ridiculous. What you do inside your apartment is your own business.”
And she questioned how NYCHA will enforce the rule, asking, “What are they going to do, go and stand outside people's doors and see if they're smoking or not?” HUD has given housing authorities some flexibility in how they make the ban work, allowing for what's called “graduated enforcement.” That means if a resident is caught smoking, they'll get a warning the first time. The second time they'll face a formal hearing that could — if there are more violations — end up with an eviction notice. To initiate enforcement, NYCHA requires at least one staff member or three tenants must witness a tenant smoking on NYCHA property. Tenants can report an incident by calling NYCHA's command center, filing a complaint via 311 or walking into a management office of a development.
Andrea Mata, NYCHA's director of health initiatives, said that before enacting the ban the authority consulted with tenants across its 320 developments. Surveys in 2012 and 2015 indicate 18% to 20% of NYCHA tenants smoke, compared with 13.4% citywide.
Many tenants complained about experiencing secondhand smoke leaking out of neighboring apartments, Mata said.
“There was a real concern among residents that there was actual meat to this,” she said, noting that NYCHA management is “planning on monitoring (the ban) very closely,” and “shifting the policy down the line if necessary.”
NYCHA officials noted that several other public housing authorities have already had development-wide smoking bans, including Boston, Philadelphia and Portland, Ore. Chicago has a ban at some but not all developments.