The overwhelming majority of residents at a pilot community housing development in Centretown favour the project’s non-smoking policy, according to recent survey.
The survey was sent to tenants at Beaver Barracks, a residential development which opened in 2010 just north of the Queensway near the Canadian Museum of Nature. The results show that 98 per cent of respondents support the non-smoking policy and 93 per cent think the policy is working well.
Although the numbers are high, the results are not surprising, says Meg McCallum, spokesperson for Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corp., the organization that built Beaver Barracks and provides more than 1,500 units of affordable housing throughout downtown Ottawa.
“Everyone moved in knowing that there was a non-smoking policy,” says McCallum, adding that even if the results are not surprising, they are encouraging. “It shows us this is something tenants really care about.”
The results look promising for city-owned Ottawa Community Housing Corp., which provides affordable housing for over 32,000 people in almost 15,000 units throughout Ottawa. In December, the corporation committed to making all of its properties smoke-free by May 31.
“It’s good news and it’s encouraging for us,” says Laurene Wagner, the corporation’s interim CEO. “It re-affirms and supports more than a trend, but a desire for communities to not have second hand-smoke.”
Any tenant who signed a lease with the corporation since Jan. 1 has had to agree not to smoke in his or her home. As of May 31, smoking will also be banned in common areas on all corporation properties. This will include communal spaces indoors, private backyards, parking lots, and balconies.
Access to housing that’s both smoke-free and affordable is especially important for tenants’ health, says Pippa Beck, a policy analyst at the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association.
“It’s important for people to have options for smoke-free housing at any point in the housing market,” says Beck, adding that it’s a particularly important option for those with chronic diseases such as asthma to live somewhere smoke-free.
Health concerns about second-hand smoke were one of the main issues the corporation wanted to address with the policy, according to McCallum. “In any multi-res(identical) setting, because you share walls and ceilings and floors, you are having air transmission through the walls. You are at the mercy of the behaviour of your neighbours,” she says.
Second-hand smoke could be more damaging to those in community housing, says Beck, because people tend to stay even when they are unhappy with the living conditions. “People are unlikely to move out, because the waiting lists are so long,” she says.
The corporation plans to expand the no-smoking policy to other properties this year, according to statements released with the survey results from Beaver Barracks. However, McCallum says it has no concrete plans yet for when or where the policy will be implemented next.
“The challenge is because we’re governed by the landlord tenant act, that we have a legal contract through leases,” she says.
The legislation means landlords cannot change the conditions of a lease after it has been signed, including conditions which do or do not allow tenants to smoke in their homes. The same act is the reason corporation is only requiring new tenants to agree not to smoke.