The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is sharply limiting which types of animals people with disabilities who are renting a home can claim as a “reasonable accommodation.”
New guidance indicates that the federal housing agency will only consider “animals trained to provide disability-related assistance” as an accommodation for people with disabilities under the Fair Housing Act.
Previously, animals that provided emotional support qualified even if they didn’t have any specialized training. As a result, landlords generally could not charge a pet fee or deny housing to an individual with an emotional support animal.
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The directive to HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity staff late last month does not change existing law, but does influence enforcement by curtailing what types of Fair Housing Act complaints the agency will take up. It replaces guidance that was issued in 2020.
Per the new guidance, HUD will more closely align its standard for determining which animals qualify as reasonable accommodations with the Americans with Disabilities Act. One notable difference, however, is that the housing agency will recognize any species with proper training while the ADA definition is limited to dogs and miniature horses.
“While requests to waive pet policies for animals trained to perform specific disability-related services are presumptively reasonable, requests to waive pet policies for untrained ESAs are not,” reads the memorandum from Craig W. Trainor, assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity. “By prioritizing the most meritorious cases involving trained assistance animals, (the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity) can responsibly utilize its enforcement discretion to deploy enforcement resources consistent with the best reading of the law.”
All open cases related to emotional support animals will be reviewed by Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Programs Robert A. Doles and be determined on a case-by-case basis, HUD said.
The agency noted that its regulations on this topic have not be updated in 35 years and indicated that it plans to propose updated rules that are more consistent with those under the ADA.
For people with emotional support animals, the new guidance means that “filing a complaint with HUD is no longer a meaningful option,” according to the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund.
“That removes a significant deterrent that previously helped keep landlords from denying ESA requests or charging pet fees,” the group said. “What has not changed is the Fair Housing Act itself. The law still says landlords must make reasonable accommodations for disabled people. HUD has simply decided not to enforce that law for disabled people with untrained ESAs. You still have the right to go to court — HUD’s memo explicitly says so.”
