Smoke-Free Elderly Property

Smoke-Free Elderly Property

UPDATE: HASLETT - Marsh Pointe Apartments on Marsh Road has gone completely smoke free as of March 1st, and residents are rejoicing.

Prior to the policy change, leasers could be exposed to cigarette smoke from other residents who chose to light up indoors.

"I breathe better...my food tastes better...and if people only knew they are a lot better off if they don't smoke." said Delores Brown, who's been living at Marsh Pointe for about three years.

Community Manager Fred Meyer wanted to implement the policy while still being fair to all the residents who live in the building.

"We didn't ask people that smoke to leave, we just ask them to stop smoking in their apartments," said Fred Meyer, the Community Manager at Marsh Pointe, "we allowed people to break lease if they felt as though they could no longer live here as a result of the smoking ban. So we didn't charge them to leave if they wanted to."

Not only is the policy a good decision for the health of everyone living there. It's also a good economic decision since a smoker's apartment has to be more extensively cleaned before it's re-leased. The expense to turnover an apartment that's been smoked in adds nearly a thousand dollars to a unit.

"They should've did it years ago," said Lois Schneider a resident in Haslett, "there were restaurants that had one little booth on the side and [they] called it a no smoking policy. Smoke went all over the room, everyone got it."

ORIGINAL STORY: HASLETT - An elderly apartment in Haslett goes completely smoke-free.

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