Directive previews a significant policy change on emotional support animals.

The Big Picture 

On May 22, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued Enforcement Guidance – Assessing Requests for the Use of an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the Fair Housing Act. This guidance notifies HUD headquarters and regional staff that effective immediately, for fair housing complaints related to animal-related reasonable accommodations, HUD will find reasonable cause and recommend charges only for cases involving animals that are trained to provide disability-related assistance, i.e. service animals.  

This announcement previews significant changes in HUD policy on service animals and emotional support animal (ESA) requests that will become legally binding for the public and businesses in future rulemaking. In the enforcement memo, HUD states that it intends to harmonize its regulations, to the maximum extent possible, with those of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).     

Deeper Dive

Key changes include:

• HUD will use the training component of the ADA definition for service animals to assess animal-related reasonable accommodation complaints under the federal Fair Housing Act; 

• HUD will find reasonable cause for failure to provide a reasonable accommodation involving the waiver of a pet policy only where the animal has been individually trained to perform work or perform tasks directly related to the complainant’s disability; and 

• HUD no longer expects housing providers to categorically extend accommodations for trained service animals to untrained ESAs. 

The enforcement memo instructs Regional Directors in HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity to send all open emotional support animal cases to HUD’s Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Programs for a case-by-case determination on the merits. Overall, this announcement has an immediate impact only on assistance animal accommodation requests that are the subject of complaints filed directly with HUD or HUD-initiated, and possibly those that are “dual-filed” with HUD and a certified state or local agency.  Although it may provide another defense for denying or limiting an accommodation for an assistance animal, the memo does not have binding authority over state or local law enforcement, whether administratively or in a lawsuit brought by a private plaintiff.

NAA’s Perspective 

While the National Apartment Association (NAA) supports disabled renters’ rights to reside with their assistance animals, fraudulent reasonable accommodation requests for assistance animals - specifically ESAs – create significant concern for apartment owners and operators. The volume of fraudulent requests continues to inflate housing providers’ compliance costs and their administrative requirements to process requests timely in accordance with fair housing laws. NAA is grateful to HUD for taking swift action and looks forward to continuing conversations with HUD and the Administration on our shared housing goals. 

NAA will continue to serve as an educational resource for its members. NAA’s Emotional Support Animal Toolkit helps to inform industry professionals of their fair housing responsibilities to evaluate reasonable accommodations for animals in housing and navigate fraudulent requests. As this situation continues to evolve, NAA will update its member resources accordingly. 

Deeper Dive 

To learn more about NAA’s fair housing-related advocacy, see our Emotional Support Animals policy page or contact publicpolicy@naahq.org.