More N.H. housing authorities consider smoking restrictions

LEBANON, N.H.—Restrictions on smoking are becoming more common in public housing, though outright bans remain rare.

In 2004, the Lebanon Housing Authority started requiring all new residents to sign a lease that prohibits smoking anywhere in its apartment buildings, but smokers already living in the apartments were allowed to continue. That has created some friction at Rogers House, where Betty Abbott wishes the state would ban smoking in senior residential complexes the way it panned the practice in bars and restaurants last year.

"I hate to be an old Grinch about it, but yes, I'd like to see them cut it out," she said.

Jonathan Chaffee, executive director of the Lebanon Housing Authority, said smoking has become a huge issue. Anti-smoking initiatives will be on the agenda next fall when housing authorities from New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont attend a conference in Dixville Notch, he said.

"We know that people who don't smoke are adamant about the problems smoke gives," he said. "And the people who do smoke are adamant about wanting to smoke."

Beyond the public health concerns and fire risks, smoking also costs the government-funded housing authorities more in renovations when tenants move out.

"A nonsmoking apartment may cost us $800 to repaint. A smoking apartment may cost up to $10,000," said Andrew Fennelly, who runs the Claremont Housing Authority. "Sometimes we have to remove kitchen cabinets, remove tiles from floors. It takes us weeks."

Fennelly has seen the number of indoor smokers drop from 67 to 32 at his senior housing complex in the two years since the authority instituted nonsmoking leases. That reduction has saved money for other projects and encouraged other housing managers, like Exeter Housing Authority Director Vern Sherman, to do the same.

Sherman, who is in the process of implementing nonsmoking leases, said the concept still is fairly new, with only a small percentage of the nation's 3,400 housing authorities requiring leases with smoking restrictions. But in researching the trend, he also found examples of organizations in other parts of the country trying to ban smoking altogether but giving existing residents a certain amount of time to quit.

In Lebanon, the housing authority offered rent rebates to residents who quit but Chaffee said the cessation program was "almost completely unsuccessful."

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Information from: Lebanon Valley News, http://www.vnews.com

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