Committed to Excellence!
Call Us Free: (601) 693-4285

Executive Director’s Message

MHA Smoke-Free Housing Policy

 

  1. Smoking is not permitted in any facilities owned or managed by the Housing Authority of the City of Meridian (hereafter referred to as MHA), including apartments, in accordance with the following guidelines.  Effective December 1, 2012, all current residents, employees, contractors, guests and new residents of MHA after this date will be prohibited from smoking inside all MHA facilities including the dwelling units. Any current resident as of December 1, 2012, who desires to continue smoking on a temporary basis, must request and sign the temporary smoking exemption form provided by the property manager allowing them to smoke in the unit/apartment.  This exemption will continue only until the beginning of MHA’s new fiscal year which begins April 1, 2013 at which time the smoke-free policy will also apply to all residents. An approved exemption listing will be maintained in the property manager’s office for management purposes.
  2. Any resident with an approved exemption must not smoke in any unit other than their own.  Any resident with an approved exemption must not allow anyone not on their lease to smoke in their unit at any time; this includes guests and other residents.
  3. Any deviation from the smoke-free policy by MHA residents, members of their household, or their guests will be considered a lease violation.  Three (3) violations will be considered to be a repeated violation of the material terms of the lease and could result in eviction.  A cleaning charge of $150.00 will be added to the resident’s account for each violation of the policy that occurs inside a building/unit/apartment.
  4. “No Smoking” signs will be posted outside and inside the buildings and at the entrance of each property manager’s office.
  5. Smoking outside any MHA building including dwelling units is limited to the following area(s): 25 feet from any entrance or window or public sidewalks.
  6. If a resident senses tobacco smoke in any building, they are to report their observation to the management office as soon as possible.  Management will make every attempt to seek the source of the smoke and take appropriate action.
  7. For the health and safety of MHA employees and their representatives, no resident shall have any type of tobacco or related product burning at such time as any employee or representative of MHA enters and remains in their dwelling unit.  If any resident refuses to put out the burning tobacco or related product prior to the employee or representative entering the unit, or if the resident lights a tobacco or related product while an employee or representative remains in the apartment, the employee or representative shall document the incident on a work order request and leave the resident a copy, vacate the apartment immediately and not return until such time as there is no longer any tobacco or related product burning.  This may result in a delay of services to the unit/apartment.
  8. New residents will be given a copy of the smoke-free policy.  After review, the resident will sign the Smoke Free Lease Addendum; a copy will be kept in the resident’s file.
  9. Upon adoption of this policy, all residents presently living in units managed by MHA will be given a copy of the policy. After review, the resident will sign the Smoke Free Lease Addendum and if applicable, the temporary exemption form.  Both will be placed in the resident’s file.
Leave a Reply

Public Housing & HCV

tmpMHAOfficePic

Welcome to the Meridian Housing Authority
We are located at 2425 E Street, Meridian, MS

The Meridian Housing Authority was incorporated in 1939 and provides affordable housing opportunities to more than 3,000 residents in the City of Meridian. The agency currently administers 1214 public housing units, 215 Housing Choice Vouchers and 89 privately owned apartments.

 

Mixed Income Development

Carousel Place

Carousel Place, Meridian MS

When you begin to define the character of a community, one of the things you look for is its relation to other housing in the neighborhood…

Does any housing standout or do they blend seamlessly? Is it compatible with the other housing?

Doing Business With MHA

handshake

We welcome and look forward to doing business with all new vendors.

To learn more about the Procurement and Contracting process, click here.