HUD Proposes Plan to Ban Smoking in Public Housing

The nation's public housing is facing a mandatory smoking ban under a new rule to be proposed today by the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, The New York Times reports.

The ban would affect a million homes nationwide, and is an effort at saving residents from the effects of second-hand smoke, prevent fires and reduce maintenance costs.

The move is controversial, as some residents see it as another effort to control what they do in their own homes. The ban would include common areas and administrative offices in public housing. According to the Times, among some of the most-burdened agencies would be New York City, which houses more than 400,000 people in about 178,000 apartments; it also has avoided HUD's previous calls to voluntarily go smoke-free.

HUD has called for smoking bans in public housing since 2009 and more than 600 agencies encompassing over 200,000 households have voluntarily barred indoor smoking.