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KCDC to enforce HUD ban on smoking on public housing property starting today

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is mandating a ban on smoking in public housing areas, including Knoxville.

KNOXVILLE — Smoking won't be allowed inside public housing here in Knoxville and across the nation starting July 31st.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development first announced the ban in 2016.

Here in East Tennessee, the Knoxville Community Development Corporation oversees about 75-hundred of those homes.

This is going to affect people in Lonsdale Homes, Austin Homes and Montgomery Village, among others.

KCDC's Senior VP of Housing says they're hoping to help people quit an unhealthy habit while enforcing the rules.

"What are they gonna say next, you can't drink a beer in your house," said resident Edward Jones.

Jones has a lot of questions. He's against the Department of Housing and Urban Development's new policy banning smoking inside public housing.

KCDC took it a step further banning smoking across all KCDC property.

"We pretty much just have to go by the rules. If not, you throw us out of the house, but that don't seem fair for the petty rules," Jones said. "I think it's petty for cigarette smokes."

"HUD and us are trying to look at this as an educational and a health and safety item, that we can do something to benefit all of our residents," KCDC Senior VP of Housing Sean Gilbert said.

Gilbert says the goal is to help people quit smoking. He says they started letting people know about the changes last year, and recently posted notices on doors.

"A lot of people have thanked us--especially if you're in a high rise, having to walk through all the smoke to get to their apartments," Gilbert said.

Gilbert says they will not be installing any devices to enforce the policy.

"We're not going to go into people's apartments and beat on doors and go looking for this," Gilbert said. "We're going to depend on the residents to do some self-policing."

Gilbert says the policy should save taxpayers money in apartment maintenance.

"Not just for the housing authority, but if people aren't getting lung disease and things like that, they won't have to use the healthcare system as much," Gilbert said.

HUD says at least of 600 of its more than 3,100 public housing agencies across the country already had smoke-free policies when it announced the rule two years ago.

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