HUD Issues Service Animal Notice

HUD notice FHE0-2013-01 entitled “Service Animals and Assistance Animals for People with Disabilities in Housing and HUD-Funded Programs” was released on April 25, 2013. To view the notice, click here.

The notice explains the circumstances under which the Fair Housing Act (FHA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), may require housing providers to allow tenants to live with “service” and “assistance" animals.

The notice will be used by HUD staff to enforce federal fair housing laws as they apply to persons with disabilities who have a disability-related need to live with animals in both public and private housing.

The definition of "service animal" contained in ADA regulations does not limit housing providers' obligations to grant reasonable accommodation requests for assistance animals in housing under either the FHA or Section 504.

Under these laws, rules, policies or practices must be modified to permit the use of an assistance animal as a reasonable accommodation in housing when its use may be necessary to afford a person with a disability an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling and/or the common areas of a dwelling, or may be necessary to allow a qualified individual with a disability to participate in, or benefit from, any housing program or activity receiving financial assistance.

Contact: Ken Harris, kharris@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8383, ext. 139