Emotional Support Animals
On January 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released new guidance to clarify the responsibilities of both rental housing providers and renters concerning reasonable accommodation requests for emotional support animals (ESAs) in housing. NAA staff has reviewed the guidance and has updated NAA’s ESA products accordingly, including NAA’s ESA Toolkit. In light of the revised guidance, you are strongly advised to consult your legal counsel before taking any action regarding emotional support animal requests.
We recommend this course for anyone looking to increase their knowledge about the implementation of what federal policies look like in practice. Reasonable accommodation requests for assistance animals—including emotional support animals—create challenges for many apartment owners. They affect an owner's ability to assess pet deposits and fees and to apply rules and policies to the requesting resident's animal. This course addresses these issues!
You'll learn about:
- How the Fair Housing Act protects renters with disabilities
- What is required for reasonable accommodation requests
- The definition of an assistance animal
- The difference between support animals and service animals
- How federal laws and guidelines govern how apartment management treats assistance animals for renters with disabilities