Department of Housing and Urban Development to ban smoking in and near public housing at the end of July

Smokers won't be able to light up in or near public housing starting July 31, CNN reports.

The federal ban is expected to save public agencies an estimated $153 million every year in costs related to health care due to secondhand smoke, as well as repairs and losses from preventable fires, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here's why this issue is important in Houston:

• 7,500 people live in public housing.
• 33.6 percent of adults living in public housing smoke, which is more than twice the smoking rate among the general population.
• In multi-unit housing, secondhand smoke can travel through an entire building, posing serious health threats for children and adults such as lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and asthma.

Although the policy was announced two years ago by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the agency gave the nation's more than 3,300 local public housing authorities nearly two years to begin enforcement.

HUD said the rule will be part of residents' leases, along with information about how to quit smoking. Tenants who break the rule could be evicted.