Comprehensive Tobacco Cessation in Public Housing Community Health Centers: Beyond Policy Adoption and Implementation
July 20, 2017
On December 5, 2016, HUD published a final rule requiring all Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) administering low-income, conventional public housing to initiate a smoke-free policy. The Rule was effective on February 3, 2017 with an 18-month implementation period. Currently, more than 600 PHAs and Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHEs) have already voluntarily adopted smoke-free policies, resulting in 228,000 public housing units that are smoke free. Once the Rule has been implemented, another 940,000 public housing units, including more than 500,000 units inhabited by elderly residents and 760,000 units with children, will become smoke free. This learning collaborative offers valuable information on the HUD’s rule implementation, Health Center’s tobacco cessation services, Smoking Cessation best practices from a PHPC grantee, and ALA’s resources.