Posted on 10/04/2014 3:46:52 PM PDT by Drango
When it snows, Albert Smith dreads having to put on a couple of coats and sit in his car in the parking lot of the West Mifflin Manor apartment complex to smoke a cigarette.
But after the Allegheny County Housing Authority banned smoking inside his building this week, he fears that's what he'll have to do.
“I'm not on board,” said Smith, 72, a smoker since he was 15 who sat outside the subsidized apartment complex with a pack of Pall Malls in his shirt pocket and a smoke-free sign tacked to the wall behind him. “I pay $400 a month, and then they tell you what you can't do in your room.”
The housing authority snuffed out smoking inside five authority-managed buildings Wednesday, forcing Smith and other smokers to light up outside.
On Friday, that meant sitting on a bench under West Mifflin Manor's covered entrance or dodging raindrops in a designated — uncovered — smoking area.
“Smokers are not a protected class in this country,” said Frank Aggazio, executive director of the housing authority. “There are health reasons that we have; there are economic reasons. We've had three fires in the past. We've gotten many complaints.”
He said smoking caused three fires in the past 12 years at authority properties, each doing more than $1 million in damages. Jean Guentner, 79, died from burns four days after she fell asleep with a lit cigarette and started a fire at an authority-managed high-rise apartment in Blawnox in 2009.
It costs the authority twice as much to clean and repaint an apartment when a smoker moves out, Aggazio said.
Dr. Karen Hacker, director of the county health department, said the smoke-free policy will help address obesity and encourage physical activity, according to a statement Friday announcing the housing authority had joined the county's Live Well Allegheny campaign. Secondhand smoke can create cardiovascular complications and has been shown to cause cancer.
The authority offers subsidized housing to senior citizens and low-income families. Most tenants make less than $15,200 a year, 30 percent of the county's median income of $50,664, Aggazio said.
The five buildings that went smoke-free — Andrew Carnegie Apartments in Carnegie, G.W. Carver Hall in Clairton, John Fraser Hall in Turtle Creek, Ohioview Tower in McKees Rocks and West Mifflin Manor in West Mifflin — have 330 apartments. Aggazio hopes to expand the program to about half of the authority's 47 buildings and more than 3,000 units in the next few years.
The Cumberland County Housing and Redevelopment Authority went smoke-free for its 208 units at the beginning of the year. A few tenants have violated the policy, but there has been little opposition, said Ben Laudermilch, the authority's executive director.
Cumberland County gives tenants one warning before they are evicted for smoking. Allegheny County will give tenants four strikes before they are out, Aggazio said.
Private landlords, too, may rent only to non-smokers.
Liz Hersh, executive director of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, a low-income housing advocate organization, said housing authorities legally can ban tenants from smoking inside buildings. She said it's a sensible policy.
“Being a smoker is not a civil right. It's a lifestyle choice, and it has an impact on other people,” Hersh said.
LOW-INCOME PUBLIC HOUSING PROGRAM
The Public Housing (PH) Program was established by the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 to provide decent, safe and sanitary housing for low-income families, elderly, and persons with disabilities. The ACHA owns and operates Public Housing complexes throughout Allegheny County, consisting of high-rise apartments, walk-up apartments, townhouse apartments, and single-family homes. The ACHA receives federal funding subsidies and program participants pay rent based on their income.
I gained 15. Hard to keep off.
I would assume that the smoking ban does not include joints....which are part of the culture and not a choice!
I believe they have a right to do so.
Even with your assumptions, we are talking about thousands of dollars. $10 day x 365 days (most years), $3,650 a year. (That's 'thousands of dollars',) So what you call exaggeration, most folks would call clear facts.
Cigarette smoking usually disgusts me.... But what I see here are some petty tyrants w Gov’t jobs getting their fun by tormenting these poor people in their housing units/Maybe their lives are semi-miserable and smoking is one cheap pleasurable thing they have
Oh come on. A lot of “poor” people know enough to roll their own. It costs me $27. a month to smoke about a pack a day. I’m 74 and healthy as a horse. And not obese from quitting.
So does your Goobermint.
Yes, thousands of dollars per year which, when applied to apartment rent, works out to about a $300 per month difference. You might as well say that he’d save tens of thousands of dollars per decade but it would still be $300 per month.
Fair enough.
As a society we need to stop subsidizing those who don’t need it. That includes crony capitalism such as Boeing and the Export-Import bank.
The individual in this story smokes and likely spends over $1,000 a year doing it assuming he smokes a pack a day. It’s disposable income. My point is that amount should go to his rent. I’m sorry that he may be semi-miserable, but he needs to stop feeding at the taxpayer teat.
http://www.rollyourown.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=365_13_264&products_id=1579
http://www.rollyourown.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=365_13_264&products_id=1579
That is a dollar a pack
The amount of his rent is based on his income and not any habit.
You sound like a government troll that wants to wring the last dollar out of someone's pocket. If he spent that on bowling or fishing would you still want every disposable dime?
That was my point
Ooopss..
http://www.rollyourown.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=365_13_264&products_id=1579
http://www.rollyourown.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=90_178&products_id=1552
That is a dollar a pack
Generally speaking, Parents do not change house rules.
The Gov always does.
Agreed, Good Lord what if the guy likes pudding cups?
Stand by all you nazis because they ARE going to mess with you based on what you eat through Obamacare.
Oh he at 12 pudding cups a day, we wont pay.
Furthermore I think poor people have the same RIGHTS as anyone else.
Including the 2nd Amendment
That is what High Point Firearms are for.
The guy in the single wide has the same rights as the guy in the mansion on the hill.
Absolutely. Liberals are about control.
Neither of them have a right to live on the taxpayer teat. They have the right to pay for their own apartment.
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