Page 57 - AAGLA-JAN 2022

Featured Story
ISmoking in Multifamily Housing: Tobacco, Marijuana, or E-Cigs - They All Stink!
By Daniel Yukelson, Executive Director
thought I would address the subject of extra sensitive to second-hand smoke. Face it, we don’t want smoking from the perspective of a rental the “stink” around bothering other people and harming our housing provider. No offense! If you otherwise healthy and quiet existence.
are a smoker and enjoy it, more power
to you. Merely keep your smoking self away from our properties...as in way far away.
However, at the same time we do not want smoking at our rental properties, there are those rental housing providers that are sometimes reluctant about no-smoking policies being imposed because of concerns about being responsible
The “bottom line” on smoking from the for enforcement. I get that.
perspective of rental housing providers is we just don’t want smoking anywhere in or at our rental properties because of the damage it causes to our rental units, the increased turnover costs, and also because of the many complaints we will surely get from non-smoking renters, particularly renters that have young children or health issues making them
Yet, most rental housing providers are concerned and know that smoking from cigarettes, cigars, marijuana, and E-cigs (sadly, today even from methamphetamine or better known as “meth”) are a continuing problem for both residents and owners of multifamily rental properties despite regulations that have been put into place over the past decade. From an owner’s perspective, as I mentioned, smoking, whether it is firsthand, secondhand or thirdhand, not only causes complaints among neighbors and health risks to renters and guests, but it also causes increased maintenance and turnover costs when units that contained smokers become vacant. In fact, long after a smoker vacates a unit, the effects of thirdhand smoke are still present...and, for those of you not familiar with the concept of third-hand smoke, which I only recently learned about, it is the residual nicotine and other chemical residue caused by smoking left over on indoor surfaces by tobacco, marijuana, or E-cig smoke. Kind of disgusting when you think about it.
Thirdhand smoke can often remain in a rental unit for years after a smoker has moved on and can be extremely difficult to clean. Another problem with third-hand smoke is it is not always easily detected, and thirdhand smoke that remains can often cause adverse health impacts to the next resident (and the one after that, and so on) that moves into your vacant unit...particularly for rental units that had many years of exposure to smoking.
Now let me tell you a bit about a study our Association assisted the University of California, at Los Angeles (UCLA) with. We participated in a 2019-2020 study of renters and property owners that was conducted by UCLA on behalf of the City of Los Angeles. This was the first of three smoke- free studies we have participated in, the last two being with a private research company and another with UCLA’s cross- town rival, the University of Southern California, both of which were conducting their surveys on behalf of the County of Los Angeles’ Department of health. The results of these later USC studies are still pending. But you can be sure, the County of Los Angeles is very interested in smoking within multifamily housing, and I am willing to bet you there will soon be smoking bans imposed in all of the unincorporated areas of the County if not incorporated ones too. Now, camping illegally and doing illegal narcotics on our streets,
APARTMENT AGE • JANUARY 2022 57