Smokefree Housing
Information for Tenants | Information for Landlords
For Tenants
Are you suffering from secondhand smoke drifting into your apartment or condo?
You are not alone. The secondhand smoke from even one tenant smoking indoors can drift into multiple other units and cause health problems and reduced quality of life for other residents.
Visit Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights www.no-smoke.org for helpful guides and suggestions.
Visit Public Health Law & Policy to learn about Legal Options for Tenants Suffering from Secondhand Tobacco Smoke https://www.publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/Tenants-Rights-Guide.pdf
The American Lung Association has developed Smokefree Policies in Multi-Unit Housing: Steps for Success. This free online course provides a step-by-step guide to promoting, planning and implementing a smokefree multi-unit housing policy. Steps for Success and related support materials are available on their website.
If you would like to register a complaint about exposure to secondhand smoke, fill out the Indoor Smoking Act (RSA 155:64-77) Complaint Form.
For Landlords
Are you a landlord or management company with questions and concerns about tenants smoking in your buildings?
If so, you are not alone. Whether you own a duplex and rent out the second unit, manage a six-building condominium complex, or are a property management firm with apartment buildings in multiple states, drifting secondhand smoke is an issue you are probably confronting now or will need to address in the near future.
What housing providers need to know to go smokefree.
- Visit Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights for guidance on how to address this expensive and timely issue.
- Visit Breathe NH’s Breathe Better in Healthy Homes for information on exposure to secondhand smoke in multi-unit housing
- Visit The American Lung Association for tools and resources on smokefree housing.
- To assist property managers, public health advocates and residents in their efforts to adopt smokefree multi-unit housing policies, the American Lung Association has developed Smokefree Policies in Multi-Unit Housing: Steps for Success. This free online course provides a step-by-step guide to promoting, planning and implementing a smokefree multi-unit housing policy. Steps for Success and related support materials are available on their website.
- This video, Implementing and Enforcing Smokefree Housing Policies, from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) covers benefits and obstacles and how to address them. It presents tips to enforcing a policy and shows how a resident family of smokers adapted to the policy.
NH Resource List
- American Academy of Pediatrics Tobacco Smoke Exposure Study
- A No-Smoking Policy Protects Health & Saves Money
- A No-Smoking Policy Is Legal
- A No-Smoking Policy Saves on Maintenance Costs
- Getting Rid of the Smoke
- Graphs Pre/Post Tobacco Policy
- HUD’s Rule to Restrict Smoking in Public Housing: An Overview – On November 30, 2016, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a final rule to restrict smoking in public housing. This fact sheet provides an overview of the rule’s smoking restrictions.
- Implementing HUD’s Smoke-free Policy in Public Housing Guidebook
- Landlord No-Smoking Policy Guide
- Legal Options for Tenants Suffering from Drifting Tobacco Smoke
- Model Smokefree Lease Addendum
- Sample Policies for Landlords
- Seven Steps to Implement A No-Smoking Policy
- Smoke-free Multifamily Housing Toolkits
- Tips for Handling Complaints Until You Have a Policy in Place
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Letter (2012)
- Ventilation Is Not Always the Answer
For information on how you can make your building a Breathe Better Building, call The New Hampshire Tobacco Prevention & Cessation Program at 603-271-6684 or by email at TPCP@dhhs.nh.gov.
