Nonsmokers receive preferential treatment in city-subsidized housing

A homeless person who smokes will now find it more difficult to obtain a city-subsidized roof over his or her head.

During a meeting earlier this month, the Thousand Oaks City Council voted 5-0 to decrease the availability of subsidized housing units in the city that permit smoking indoors.

The council modified the existing policy to require two-thirds of publicly assisted rental residential apartments to be restricted as nonsmoking units and half of the supportive housing units, set apart for special needs individuals, to be smoke free. The existing policy, created by the council in September 2004, required onethird of the units available for rental be restricted as nonsmoking units.

"Secondhand smoke is a real threat," explained Dr. Robert Levin, health officer for Ventura County. "Secondhand smoke, to be brief, gets everywhere- from one room into the next room, from one apartment into the next apartment and not necessarily contiguous apartments."

According to a city staff report, the concern is about providing a healthful home environment for those who live in public housing who cannot control their exposure to others' secondhand smoke.

"There is no safe level of tobacco smoke," Levin said. "Even the smallest level of smoke presents a health danger to other people. Secondhand smoke causes death from heart disease."

Many Mansions staff worked with researchers to survey residents and potential residents. In December 2006 they came up with the results from querying 156 households, or 40 percent of the total Many Mansion units, and 18 percent of the 650 people on their waiting list. Of those responding, 95 percent said they believe smoking is harmful and, even without regulations, 87 percent of residents said they do not allow smoking inside their homes.

"Living in a smokefree facility was strongly favored by a majority of respondents," the report stated.

Still, 48 percent of current residents said they've breathed secondhand smoke when on Many Mansions property, while 71 percent said they'd prefer to live in a smoke-free facility.

Concern over the added restrictions was voiced by Rick Schroeder, director of Many Mansions. He said people who'd been homeless and have mental disabilities tend to smoke a lot more than others.

The apartments each have their own ventilation system- not a centralized system that would automatically circulate smoke from one apartment into another, he said.

Smoke-free advocates wanted a provision that required clustering nonsmoking apartments together and keeping them separate from the smoking apartments. But housing authority representatives countered that such a provision might interfere with the management of housing people as efficiently as possible.

"Our primary goal is to house people," Schroeder said.

Smokers on the waiting list will now have to wait three times longer, he said. If nonsmoking units are clustered together, that will affect who gets an apartment.

If a nonsmoker needs a onebedroom apartment and there are only two-bedroom smoke-free apartments available, that could cause a problem, Schroeder explained.

At Councilmember Jacqui Irwin's request, the council added a suggestion to the resolution that every effort be made to group the nonsmoking units together.

"The goal is to have the healthiest environment that we can," Councilmember Dennis Gillette said.