Smoke-Free Multi-Housing: Healthier Buildings. Happier Tenants.
A Smart Investment.

The Live Smoke Free program promotes smoke-free policies for apartment buildings, condominiums, and other multi-unit housing settings. Currently, Minnesota tenants seeking smoke-free multi-unit housing largely outnumber the amount of smoke-free units available.

In order to increase the number of smoke-free buildings in Minnesota, Live Smoke Free educates building owners, managers, local policy makers, tenants, and housing industry professionals about the benefits of smoke-free buildings. Live Smoke Free assits building owners and managers with creating and promoting a smoke-free policy for their property.

The program also assists tenants in finding solutions to secondhand smoke problems. Tenants can learn how to talk to their landlord about creating a smoke-free policy for the building.

Live Smoke Free focuses on the Twin Cities metro area with grant funding from the Minnesota Department of Health.

To learn more about Live Smoke Free, visit www.mnsmokefreehousing.org.

2009 Twin Cities Metro Area Survey of Apartment Renters

New data regarding apartment renters' exposure to secondhand smoke and their desire to live in a smoke-free environment is now available. This survey follows a similar survey that was conducted statewide in 2001 by the Center for Energy and Environment. Live Smoke Free and Wilder Research conducted the 2009 metro-wide survey of renters and found that:

• Approximately 30% of renters are exposed to secondhand smoke that comes into their unit from somewhere else in the building.
• Of renters who are exposed to secondhand smoke, 34% are so bothered by the smoke that they are thinking of moving in order to avoid exposure. 
• A majority of renters (75%) would be likely to choose a smoke-free building over a building that allows smoking if the buildings were the same in every other way.
• Renters are also interested in buildings that provide outdoor smoke-free areas such as balconies, entryways, and entirely smoke-free properties.
• In order to live in a smoke-free building, many renters are willing to live in a building that does not have a pool or playground, drive farther to work, and pay more rent.

To learn more about the research:
View the press release about the research
View the survey fact sheet that compares data from the 2001 survey and the 2009 survey (PDF)
View the full report on the 2009 survey of metro renters (PDF)
View data from the 2001 statewide survey (opens in new window)

To learn more about Live Smoke Free, visit www.mnsmokefreehousing.org

The 2009 research was funded by a Tobacco-Free Communities grant from the Minnesota Department of Health.