As reported by MHN Online. The Towbes Group, a Santa Barbara multifamily company has imposed a no-smoking policy in the 13 multifamily properties it manages in the Santa Barbara area. Common areas and individual units will be smoke free in 6 months.
Why?
- We had received an increasing number of concerns from our residents regarding second-hand smoke
- The percentage of Californians who smoke is down to around 15 percent
- Recent California legislation allows landlords and property owners to offer “smoke free” living environments at their apartment communities.
- We are committed to giving our residents the best living experience possible in their homes.
- The cost to turn an apartment that has been smoke free is significantly less than that of an apartment that has been smoked in.
- The most important reason is the ability to give our residents a ‘healthy’ option in multifamily housing.
And the results: “Out of those numbers [2,000 units in 13 communities], I received two complaints from residents who were not in agreement with our new policy. In addition, we did have one resident let us know they would be moving out of one of our communities. If anything, that very small number validated our decision to go smoke free. We really believe that we will attract a greater number of prospective residents by offering a ‘smoke free’ living experience.”
Not bad eh? Create a more healthy living environment for your residents while reducing turnover costs. Have you done this with your apartment buildings? If you have please share your experiences with us.
Apartment turnover costs can be two to seven times greater when smoking is allowed compared with maintaining and turning over a smoke-free unit says HUD.
– as many as 78 percent of tenants would choose to live in a smoke-free complex.
HUD Releases Smoke-Free Housing Toolkit: http://1.usa.gov/MoHyv7
Smoke free condominium buildings make it far easier to sell the units.
Even a smoker doesn’t want to move into another smokers old home!
Good point Joe- Are there any legal issues with going ‘smoke free’ in Philadelphia?