With a new U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) fixing to receive a green light, Elizabethton Housing has already taken a couple of laps.

According to HUD, the department’s smoke-free policy will officially go into effect nationwide at the end of this month, making it a rule that there can be no smoking in public housing.

The effective date of the Rule was in February of 2017 and all public housing agencies were given an 18-month period to implement the new rules.

Getting an early start to the new policy, the Elizabethton Housing and Development Agency (EHDA) adopted their own policy that went into effect at the start of this year giving residents the ability to smoke, as long as they were 25 feet away from agency properties, which includes homes, administrative buildings, playgrounds or walking trails.

Since the implementation of the policy, Geagley told the Elizabethton Star that a majority of residents have been receptive. EHDA opted for the policy in October of this past year. Since learning of the news in 2016, the agency held a variety of public workshops and engaged the community’s input about what steps to take when creating a policy that falls in line with the national mandate.

According to the HUD website, the department states that no individual has the “right” to smoke in a rental home and no one is in a protected subclass under anti-discrimination laws. HUD added that nobody can be grandfathered under a policy that would be adopted and a violation of the new policy could have the tenant subjected to lease termination.

Geagley added EHDA isn’t asking residents to give up smoking all together, but to abide by the rules mandated by the governmental body. To assist with the transition, EHDA has partnered with different agencies, including the Carter County Health Department, to provide smoke cessation classes to help residents stop using tobacco products, if they wish.

“The health department has been great to work with,” Geagley recently told the Elizabethton Star. “They’ve met with our residents and we’ve had positive feedback. We’ve had some residents pick up material and go through the classes.”

Geagley added the partnerships have helped make the transition smooth. EHDA has been able to reap success with their partnership, including their work alongside the Carter County Community Advisory Board.

Away from the smoke-free policy, it was recently announced that the facility’s community garden, offered through the CAB, is now self-sufficient. Geagley stated that these types of projects have helped encourage community togetherness for residents in the EHDA.