About

On December 5, 2016, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a final rule for each of its funded Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) to initiate a smoke-free policy; the effective date of the rule was February 3, 2017. As of July 31, 2018, all PHAs are required to have a smoke-free policy in place. The purpose of the Building Success website is to support efforts to implement smoke-free policies by sharing practical ideas and insights from housing providers and residents who went smoke-free.

Identifying strategies for success

The Building Success research team conducted three studies that examined the opinions and experiences of early adopters of smoke-free housing policies and identified key approaches that supported implementation efforts.

HUD’s Smoke-free Rule: Survey of Early Adopter Public Housing Authorities (Early Adopter Study)

Retrospective information about how PHAs adopted the policy, as well as information about ongoing post-adoption activities, was obtained from a sample of the approximately 600 PHAs that adopted a voluntary smoke-free policy prior to the 2016 HUD smoke-free rule. Information was collected from:

• Surveys of 155 PHA executive directors
• Interviews with 98 staff (executive directors, property managers, resident service coordinators, maintenance, security)
• Focus groups with 474 residents (20 group sessions) from 13 PHAs
• Site visits to 13 PHAs

More about the Early Adopter Study.

SHARE Study: Smoke-free Housing: Asking about Residents’ Experiences

This study examined the attitudes and experiences of residents and staff of 12 privately managed, low-income, multi-unit housing properties located in four eastern US states. Before and after the voluntary implementation of a smoke-free policy, information was collected from:

• Surveys of 238 residents at three different time points: Prior to the smoke-free policy being put in place, six months after smoke-free policy implementation, and one year after smoke-free policy implementation
• 26 interviews with property staff (managers, resident service coordinators, maintenance, security, and administrators)
• Focus groups with 75 residents

More about the SHARE Study.

BUILDING SUCCESS Study: Optimizing the Impact of Smoke-Free Residential Policies using an Evidence-Informed Implementation Approach

The study’s aim was to provide an adaptive implementation toolkit tailored to needs of individual properties and their residents. Information was collected from:

• Surveys of 386 residents
• Interviews with 11 staff (property managers)
• Focus groups with residents (8 group sessions) from 4 properties
• 53 resident key informant interviews

More about the BUILDING SUCCESS Study.