CAMDEN — By BRADLY GILL
Staff writer
Last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development implemented a smoking ban on all HUD-owned buildings. Residents are also prohibited from smoking within 25 feet of the structures. However, Camden’s executive director of public housing says the ban is unnecessary and could even be harmful.
HUD. gov, states, “PHAs must design and implement a policy barring the use of prohibited tobacco products in all public housing living units, interior common areas and outdoor areas within 25 feet from public housing and administrative office buildings (collectively, “restricted areas”).
“The Rule does not prohibit smoking by residents; rather, it requires that residents who smoke do so at least 25 feet away from the buildings.
“Prohibited tobacco products are defined as items that involve the ignition and burning of tobacco leaves, such as: cigarettes, cigars, pipes and water pipes ( (also known as hookahs)
“Interior common areas include but are not limited to: hallways, rental and administrative offices, community centers, day care centers, laundry centers, and similar structures”
Prior to the nationwide smoking ban, Camden residents in public housing were allowed to smoke.
Regarding the new ban, Jim Coleman, Executive Director of the Housing Authority of the City of Camden - a local division of HUD - said:
“I’ll be honest with you, it would not have been implemented had there not been a law of the land regulation past … For a lot of years, I’ve said people didn’t give up their civil liberties when they move in public housing, and if they pay the rent, take care of the unit and do what is expected of them otherwise, for them to smoke in the apartment, I feel like that was their privilege, if they did smoke.”
Coleman said the new regulations will be issued through an addendum to leases that our signed when an individual is moved into public housing and that while first offenses would simply garner a verbal warning, repeat offenses could end in eviction.
However, Coleman said he does not wish his staff to “become the smoking police” and foresees that there could be problems in the future with public housing residents using reporting their neighbors violating the policy as a retaliatory tactic.
Documents from HUD state, “HUD’s Regulatory Impact Analysis for this proposed rule estimates that through a smoke-free policy, PHAs will save an average of between $16 million to $38 million per year in reduced maintenance. The reduced fire risk will be $38 million. According to a 2014 CDC study published in Preventing Chronic Disease, ‘prohibiting smoking in all government subsidized housing in the United States, including public housing, would save an estimated $497 million per year in health care and housing-related costs.’”
Coleman said, “Their basis for this policy, I suppose, they said it would cut down on maintenance, but I promise in you in all the time that I’ve been here that smoking was not a problem when people left the unit. It was damage to the unit in other ways, not smoking.”
Coleman did acknowledge the safety benefits of the ban, as he said a few fires have started over the years from residents falling asleep with a cigarette in bed. He also said that the majority of housing units contain minors.
While other forms of tobacco are prohibited, HUD documents state that E-cigarettes - also known as electronic nicotine delivery systems - are not prohibited under the order.