Waiting to inhale

Apartment buildings slowly join smoke-free majority

Apartment buildings have been relatively slow to go smoke-free.

ORLANDO – One of the last bastions for smokers — their apartments — might be slowly edging the way of restaurants, airlines and even rental cars.

During the past two years, the state and the Florida Apartment Association began certifying apartment complexes for restricting smoking. More than 1,131 Florida landlords and property managers have agreed to prohibit smoking in at least some areas. And after half a decade of urging public housing agencies to ban smoking, the federal government this year required no smoking at subsidized apartments.

Yet even with new initiatives, the health benefits, fewer smokers, lower maintenance costs and reduced fire hazards, apartments have been relatively slow to convert into smoke-free properties.

In Florida, where 15 percent of residents smoke, about 93 percent of units lack smoke-free certification, according to the state and the National Multifamily Housing Council. Even after years of urging and a new mandate by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, only about 20 percent of public housing rentals ban smoking, according to HUD.

Some market-rate apartments have prohibited smoking — but only to a certain point.

“It seems like some of the properties with elderly residents have been a little more resistant,” said Ron Davis, who oversees smoke-free apartment programs for Florida’s Department of Health. “They tend to say, ‘These people have been smoking 70 years and they’re not going to stop now.’ ”

“The resistant ones basically feel like they have residents who have been there for a long time and, for many of them, it could be their last resort for housing,” he said.

Smoking a cigarette during a morning break from her job at a convenience store, Orlando-area resident Tilacia Harmon said she smokes at her apartment complex but only outside. She said she tries to be courteous to other residents by asking if they mind her smoke. If her landlord banned smoking, she said she would move.

“What do I have to do? Walk down the street?” said Harmon, 25. “So what am I going to do? Get kicked out?”

For tenants who continue to smoke in apartments that have been certified as smoke-free, penalties often include cleaning-related fines and even lease termination. They can still smoke, but they have to follow rules and do it elsewhere, such as a designated spot on the property, said Davis.

“Most smokers want to quit anyway, and when it becomes inconvenient to smoke it their homes, that is just one more reason to quit,” he said.

Kim Meredith-Hampton, president of the Florida Chapter of the National Association of Residential Property Managers, specializes in single-family house rentals and said leases generally include a smoke-free provision, but it takes monthly property visits to check.

“For the most part, people adhere to it,” she said.

Insurance companies tout lower rehab costs for smoke-free units, faster turnover time with less preparation and repainting, less wear on ventilation systems, discounts on property casualty insurance and lower fire risks.

Renovations of units inhabited by smokers can cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, particularly one in which a smoker lived for 10 years, said Robert Smith, president of apartment ownership group Smith Equities.

“Inside, you are causing a lot of damage,” including to the paint and carpet, he said.

In urging public housing into a smoke-free era, HUD provided housing-agency landlords with “talking points” that noted 500 deaths annually from more than 100,000 fires caused by smoking nationwide.

Health ramifications might be the biggest sales point.

“Our biggest concern is that second-hand smoke traveling from one unit to another,” Davis said. “We get so many calls from moms crying because their kids have asthma and they are in a building with a smoker.”

Chris Langdon, who is in his 60s, said he unknowingly moved into an apartment that allowed smoking in 2015. Even with the windows closed, the smell of smoke permeated his second-floor unit from the apartment below.

“It made my eyes water, made me cough,” said Langdon, who has since relocated. “It’s bad for everyone.”

Leases state that tenants can’t harm other residents, but he said their smoke can do just that.

“They pass laws that you can’t smoke in restaurants. And hotels are often smokefree or you are renting a room that is smoke-free,” Langdon said. “I’m not saying you should ban it in apartments, just disclose it.”

Insurance companies tout lower rehab costs for smoke-free units, faster turnover time with less preparation and repainting, less wear on ventilation systems, discounts on property casualty insurance and lower fire risks.