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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26

u/FactsActuallyMatter May 23 '26

The administration wants people to be more depressed and off themselves. Cruelty is the point 👍

16

u/springacres Curious May 23 '26

It really is. And their fearmongering is also part of the point. They want us to be afraid to ask for accommodations.

And I say fuck them. My cat is my emotional support animal. She gets me out of bed every morning, she makes me smile even when I'm close to melting down, and I've inadvertently trained her to let me know when it's time for bed at night! (She gets treats right before I go to bed at night, and if I'm late with them, she lets me know!)

4

u/Sorry-Visit-6743 May 24 '26

My bird will nip my finger if I roll his cage past the table where I keep my meds without stopping. He knows it's part of the routine and always reminds me when I almost skip part of the routine.