HUD May Be Tightening the Leash on the Definition of Assistance Animal
Vice President, Government Relations, Public Affairs & Legal
According to an article from The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on May 22 issued an internal enforcement memorandum regarding animal-related accommodations. According to the memorandum, effective immediately, the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity must find reasonable cause to approve and recommend reasonable accommodations only for cases involving animals specifically trained to provide disability-related assistance.
This internal announcement also states that HUD will now exclude emotional support animals from the definition of assistance animal under the federal Fair Housing Act. This will override FHEO guidance previously issued in January 2020, that defined both emotional support animals and trained service animals are not pets within certain qualifications under reasonable accommodation requests. CAI will inform members when a public notice is published on this issue.
Previous FHA guidance allowed owners or tenants in housing with a no-pets policy to have either a trained service animal or an emotional support animal in their home if a reasonable accommodation was granted under FHEO guidance. FHA previously required community associations to provide exemptions from certain pet policies and rules for both service and emotional support animals with reasonable accommodation requirements. Now, owners will no longer be exempt from no-pet policies and rules for emotional support animals. The definition of a qualified service animal will likely be more heavily regulated as well.
The FHA requires community associations to provide reasonable accommodations when requested by residents for assistance animals if the resident has a disability, the animal serves a function directly related to the disability and is necessary to afford the resident with equal opportunity to use and enjoy their dwelling. However, the accommodation must be “reasonable,” not “absolute” and cannot impose excessive financial burdens to the community association or fundamentally alter the operations of the community association.
According to the FHA, people who have a qualifying disability are permitted to keep service animals within their condominium, homeowners association, or cooperative. Emotional support animals will no longer be given this same opportunity to stay in no-pet community associations as HUD will no longer deem emotional support animal exemption requests reasonable.
More updates are forthcoming. HUD plans to engage in a formal notice and comment rulemaking process regarding animal-related reasonable accommodations to harmonize regulations as closely as possible with the Americans with Disabilities Act. CAI’s Federal Legislative Action Committee will submit public comment on behalf of the community association housing industry once deadlines are announced.
CAI continues to recognize and support the rights of residential community associations to regulate and adopt their own rules pertaining to pets and assistance animals living in their communities. CAI acknowledges the rights of individuals with disabilities to receive the assistance they need and supports state and federal law guaranteeing such rights. We continue to support legislation specifically allowing community associations to request documentation to verify the need for an accommodation for an assistance animal.
Community association boards and managers should remain diligent and informed on these potential future changes and consider reviewing and updating with counsel pet and animal policies to distinguish between trained service and/or assistance animals and untrained emotional support animals.
