Lung Health News, Fall 2005 / Winter 2006
Michelle Matisse knew she would have to move out the day her neighbors moved into the apartment below because the cigarette smoke wafting up through the common wall was already making her sick. After a month of being extremely ill, Matisse fled her Los Angeles apartment and moved in with a friend.
“I had no idea it could take over my health like that,” says the 54-year-old healthy, active massage therapist, part of a growing number of Californians who want smoke-free housing.
In fact, in a poll conducted for the American Lung Association of California’s Center for Tobacco Policy and Organizing, 69 percent of renters surveyed said that all apartment buildings should be required to offer nonsmoking sections. In a separate poll of apartment managers and owners, 67 percent said they would consider setting aside smoke-free units if they felt it would reduce fire and liability insurance costs and nearly half said they had received complaints from tenants about secondhand smoke drifting into their apartments.
“We are seeing a movement of public support toward smoke-free apartments and condos in this state,” says Kimberly Weich Reusche, Center for Tobacco Policy and Organizing project director. “People want to live in smoke-free environments.”
The American Lung Association of California, Superior Branch, received so many calls from renters looking for smoke-free apartments, the association launched a smoke-free housing Web site that lists smoke-free properties for rent in Chico and surrounding areas.The Web site provides resources for tenants as well as property owners and managers.
NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO SMOKE
“Property owners may think they can’t legally make apartments nonsmoking. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.There is no constitutional right to smoke, however, property owners are required to provide clean, habitable places to live,” says Esther Schiller, director of the Smokefree Apartment House Registry in Los Angeles, where two thirds of residents live in apartments.
“It’s not only legal for property owners to make their rentals smoke-free, it’s cost-effective because it saves on cleaning and insurance costs. When a unit has been smoked in for years, you literally have to replace the carpet and the walls because the tar adheres to every surface.”
The issue has been gaining momentum across California, where only 17 percent of adults smoke. Most people don’t want to be exposed to secondhand smoke – a dangerous pollutant that kills an estimated 35,000 to 62,000 nonsmokers each year – especially in their own homes.
A growing number of affordable housing apartment complexes in California are setting aside nonsmoking sections or non-smoking buildings for tenants who want smoke-free living. The city of Thousand Oaks recently adopted a resolution requiring developers of subsidized affordable housing to set aside a third of the units for non-smokers and the Center is working with other tobacco control advocates to encourage the city of Los Angeles and the Housing Authority to adopt a similar policy.
In April, developers, property owners and managers, attorneys, lenders, and public officials came together at the University of Southern California to discuss the issue at the first-ever conference on smoke-free multi-unit housing, which was cosponsored by the American Lung Association of California’s Center for Tobacco Policy and Organizing.
"State and federal fair housing laws require that people with chronic illnesses have reasonable accommodations where they can use and enjoy the premises,” says Schiller. “If no smoke-free units are available, how can they be accommodated? We need policies requiring smoke-free sections or buildings in all complexes.”
