Subsidized housing smokers have reader ‘smoking’
To the editor:
Watching the news report the other night, I heard that legislation was being passed to force subsidized housing tenants to smoke outside their residence.
A couple of these residents voiced their displeasure at this inconvenience and one even asked what “right” anyone had to tell them what to do in their residences when they themselves paid the rent.
Well, besides the obvious — they don’t pay their own full rent (that’s why it’s called “subsidized housing) the report pointed out the extreme costs involved in getting an apartment in livable condition for a new tenant upon turnover from a tenant who smoked. They also reported on the obvious stench seeping into hallways and even apartments of non-smokers, and that 75 percent of tenants support a non-smoking policy.
What they really failed to mention, though, was the gigantic “gorilla” in the room. To wit: Why in heck are hard-working taxpayers like myself having taxes withheld from our paychecks to help “subsidize” rents for people who are literally spending hundreds of dollars a month on a non-necessary-to-life product that serves no purpose whatsoever? If these people have hundreds of dollars to buy such junk, why is money being taken out of my paycheck to pay their rent? If they have all this money to waste on cigarettes, (beer and lottery tickets, for that matter) let them pay their own rent for the love of common sense!
We wonder why America is going bankrupt when we have programs like this which subsidize people who are not “in need,” but “in greed.” I am a hard-working taxpayer who’s worked for the last 29 years. I’m not rich by any stretch of the imagination. I could not afford to smoke if I wanted to do so.
At convenience stores around subsidized housing, I’ve observed heavy traffic of people buying cigarettes, alcohol and lottery tickets. At 2 a.m. on my way to work, I see employees coming out of a local big box store on break, smoking cigarettes and buying coffee at $2 a cup and I ask myself how can they afford to do this on a minimum wage, or near minimum wage paycheck?
I now have my answer. I’ve said before, the only people who can afford to smoke are the rich or the poor. Heck, I’ve even seen one newspaper article rail that raising cigarette prices amounted to discriminating against the poor. What foolishness! It’s time these people were responsible for their own actions. If they can afford to smoke, drink, buy lottery tickets, then they don’t need taxpayer money for their rent.
In this dreadful economy, it’s time Congress acted to crack down on this misuse of taxpayer money. I consider this a bold-faced fraud against tax-paying American citizens and it needs to stop now!
Clare Kierstead
Presque Isle
