UCLA Smoke Free Multi-Unit Housing Initiative

Last year in 2019, KYCC (Koreatown Youth & Community Center) partnered with UCLA’s Health Policy Research Center in order to gather data in regards to the effects of secondhand smoke in multi-unit housing in Los Angeles.

Many of the KYCC staff went out to the community and surveyed 1,600 tenants throughout Council Districts 2,4,5,11. This was important because the proportion of Californians reporting exposure to secondhand smoke from tobacco, marijuana, and e-cigarettes (vaping) has grown over time, despite an increasing number of smoke-free local laws in the last 10 years. Residents of market-rate, privately owned multi-unit housing (like apartments) are particularly at risk of drifting second hand smoke.

KYCC and other organizations conducted a study of 4,800 tenants altogether and 176 multi-unit home owners in the city of Los Angeles, and here are some of our findings: