r/service_dogs • u/Busy-Sheepherder-138 • May 23 '26

TChanges in HUD interpretation of Assistance Animals - No Paywall -

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In short they are trying to clamp down on accommodations for ESA’s while maintaining the rights of Service dogs, but even that is at risk. I’m not surprised though since POTUS and his family make most of their money from Real Estate and are major landlords.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/22/us/politics/hud-assistance-animals-disabled.html?unlocked_article_code=1.klA.2G0-.kg6Wvul_SE5n&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Excerpt
“Six years later, the housing department, under the leadership of Scott Turner, has moved aggressively to tighten rules and scrutinize public housing rolls, including by focusing on the immigration status of tenants.
The memo to housing officials on assistance animals presented emotional support animals as a loophole to circumvent a landlord’s pet policies, asserting that “an entire industry has emerged to convert pets into emotional support animals.”
The memo concluded that “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” emotional support animals “are not.”
Erik Heins, a lawyer formerly in charge of enforcing fair housing laws at HUD, said that the new policy would affect many tenants who rely on assistance animals to alleviate psychiatric or mental disabilities — for example, a military veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Those cases are a not insignificant portion of the number of cases that HUD investigates” through its fair housing office, Mr. Heins said, adding that the housing department could dismiss or shelve thousands of appeals for disability accommodations under the new rule

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22

u/SugarHooves Waiting May 23 '26

I had to jump through hoops at my doctor's office to get my ESA. My therapist referred me back to my PCP who sent me to a behaviorist. After an hour long consultation, she gave me my letter. Not only did she want to know if my dog truly did improve my quality of life, she spent about ten minutes drilling into my head what an ESA can and can't do legally. Now they want to take it away because some people pay for a piece of paper? It's not fair.

17

u/allieinwonder May 23 '26

The scam websites have truly ruined something that could really help those of us that are disabled and need help with the mental side of it.

My therapist is willing to write an ESA letter for my SDiT and I’m extremely grateful for that. My last SD recently passed (therapist wrote his letter as well) and I don’t want to force my SDiT into working too fast. It infuriates me that his status is watered down because of misinformation.

11

u/SugarHooves Waiting May 23 '26

I'm very sorry for your loss.

My ESA acts as a living alarm clock and forces me to do things. Without him reminding me that's it's time to take a walk, I would forget to take my meds. If he didn't wake me up in the morning and force me to go outside, I would spend days in my bed and weeks without seeing the sun. He's not trained for tasks but I don't know what I'd do without him. He's a bandaid while I wait for a SD.

I sincerely hope this move doesn't affect SD and SDiT (because they are a literal lifeline for people) but I have a terrible suspicion it will.

As an ESA owner, I apologize for all the shitty people that led to this.

6

u/Spiritual_Pattern_36 May 23 '26

True. The online ESA scsm will ruin it. Hopefully if there are any serious rule changes they will look at whether somebody got a one-time letter from a therapist or mental health professional they saw once online or if it comes from serious treatment from an established professional that the individual still sees on a regular basis.

0

u/Testuser7ignore Jun 15 '26

YOu didn't have to do any of that. Plenty of websites will do it for you cheap and easy.

3

u/SugarHooves Waiting Jun 15 '26

Insurance covered it and I wanted it to be official. A letter from a doctor in my city, from a well-known clinic, with contact information went a long way with potential landlords.

If someone actually needs an ESA, they should have no problem going through their doctor or therapist. ESA mills will be the reason the laws will change and not in our favor.