Seattle Housing receives grant to explore making low-income housing non-smoking
$169,000 two-year grant awarded by Public Health - Seattle & King County
SEATTLE — October 8, 2010 — The Seattle Housing Authority was recently awarded a $150,000 two-year grant from Public Health – Seattle & King County to explore non-smoking policies for up to 6,500 units of affordable housing.
In spring of 2010, Public Health – Seattle & King County was awarded two highly-competitive federal stimulus grants to address the leading causes of death in our region as part a program called Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW). The program is sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. In July, Public Health distributed $8.9 million from those stimulus grants to approximately 50 different community organizations in King County.
CPPW supports policy, systems and environmental changes that reduce obesity and tobacco use. These are the main contributors to premature illness, death, and health care costs locally and nationally. The program's overall goals are to help community organizations find ways of increasing physical activity, improving nutrition, decreasing smoking rates and reducing health inequities.
Seattle Housing will use the grant to investigate what it would take to implement a 100 percent non-smoking policy in its buildings. The funding will be available through March 20, 2012.
The agency will explore developing an appropriate non-smoking policy using residents and stakeholder involvement. Meetings throughout Seattle Housing developments will provide an opportunity for management and residents to discuss the issue.
The steps involved in implementing such a policy, how best to educate residents about the dangers of smoking and provide smoking cessation options, and what alternative outdoor smoking areas might be appropriate for residents who continue to smoke will be topics of discussion in the meetings.
Seattle Housing is planning to hire a part-time project coordinator to be responsible for conducting outreach to resident and stakeholders, coordinating interpretation and translation, managing funds and developing potential policies. The agency will also work closely with Neighborhood House to provide education and outreach for residents, staff and agency partners.
More than 4,300 people die from heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, and diabetes every year in King County. Poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, tobacco use, and exposure to tobacco smoke are critical risk factors for these chronic diseases. People who most experience these risk factors tend to be low income residents and people of color.
Research has also shown that those living in south King County or south Seattle are more likely to experience these risk factors.
"Our goal is for all residents, regardless of where they live in the county, to have access to healthy choices and opportunities for healthy living," said King County Executive Dow Constantine in a recent press release. "We have put in place smoke-free environments and are working to improve regional air quality, travel options and open space through more integrated planning, zoning and transportation decisions. All of these efforts are aimed at making King County a healthier place for all residents."
Seattle Housing continues to pursue the goal of creating a healthier environment for all residents, especially children and those with long-term conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to poor air quality. On August 1, all buildings within the Seattle Senior Housing Program became smoke-free. The action was prompted by the results of a survey of Senior Housing residents conducted in July 2009. More than 71 percent of residents who responded to the survey were in favor of making the program's buildings smoke-free.
