Cityscape: Volume 19 Number 3 | Instituting Smoke-Free Public Housing: An Economic Analysis

Instituting Smoke-Free Public Housing: An Economic Analysis

Alastair McFarlane
Yves Djoko
Alex Woodward
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official positions or policies of the Office of Policy Development and Research, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or the U.S. government.

Impact

A regulatory impact analysis must accompany every economically significant federal rule or regulation. The Office of Policy Development and Research performs this analysis for all U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rules. An impact analysis is a forecast of the annual benefits and costs accruing to all parties, including the taxpayers, from a given regulation. Modeling these benefits and costs involves use of past research findings, application of economic principles, empirical investigation, and professional judgment.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) promulgated a smoke-free regulation to require public housing agencies (PHAs) to implement a policy that all PHA-owned indoor areas and all areas within 25 feet of public housing be free from lit tobacco products. PHAs may exercise their discretion to include a prohibition of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) in their individual smoke-free policies if they deem such a prohibition beneficial. If successful, the rule will eliminate public housing residents’ exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) while at home and eliminate any adverse effects of smoking on the property.