A year from now, Ottawa Community Housing may force tenants who smoke to leave their home to indulge their nicotine habit.
OCH, the largest provider of social housing in Ottawa and the second-largest in all of Ontario, has proposed a smoke-free initiative for its units.
In a few weeks, OCH will launch a pilot project at 245 Crichton St. in New Edinburgh.
Once renovations in the apartment building are completed, six families will move in but no one will be permitted to smoke inside.
Tenants will be required to sign a lease acknowledging the smoking ban on the premises.
The outcome of the pilot project could determine whether the no-smoking rule is implemented at the rest of OCH’s 14,783 units located throughout Ottawa, including Centretown.
Jo-Anne Poirier, chief executive officer of OCH, says this proposal is due to the increasing number of complaints about smoking in buildings, the effects of second-hand smoke, and the rising number of fire incidents in units.
According to last fall’s OCH newsletter, the leading cause of fatal fires is smokers’ materials and open flames such as cigarettes and candles.
The same newsletter states that 28 OCH households had a major fire in 2010, something the agency believes it should be able to reduce with the smoke-free initiative.
Vanier-Rideau Coun. Mathieu Fleury, who sits on the OCH board of directors, says in addition to protecting the homes, OCH also hopes to lower the dangers of second-hand smoke with this new policy.
“We all know that second-hand smoking is as dangerous as being a smoker,” he said.
“We’re very hopeful that with this pilot project we will not only improve the quality of living in the units but also prevent some of the damage.”
Poirier acknowledges the project may be a controversial issue, but she says she has had nothing but positive feedback from tenants since the proposal was announced.
“I know that we will likely get feedback from smokers who say that they want to be able to continue smoking in their units,” she acknowledged.
If the ban is imposed in all of its buildings, OCH officials say they will work closely with Ottawa Public Health to offer smoking cessation programs to tenants forced to give up smoking at home.