A federal rule announced Wednesday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development will prohibit smoking in public housing residences across the U.S., effective in 2017, The New York Times reports.
HUD officials said the rule will take effect next year, but public housing agencies will get a year and a half to implement smoke-free policies, according to the report. More than 1.2 million households will be affected, though roughly 200,000 homes around the nation already adhere to voluntary smoking bans.
The ban, which HUD proposed a year ago as part of a campaign to combat exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke, prohibits smoking cigarettes, cigars, pipes and hookahs, but not e-cigarettes, in all living units, indoor common areas, administrative offices and outdoor areas within 25 feet of housing and office facilities, according to the report.
"The last thing that we want are evictions," HUD Secretary Julián Castro told The New York Times. "We don't see this as a policy that is meant to end in a whole lot of evictions. We're confident that public housing authority staff can work with residents so that that can be avoided."
Housing agencies that have already enacted smoking bans said they enforce their policies with warnings and fines, as well as education, counseling and smoking-cessation aids, according to the report.
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