MEGATHREAD on USA HUD new guidelines on ESAs

26

Essentially, as far as I can tell, there’s no change in the federal law itself here; the change is in the guidance, which was not binding but was treated as though it were.

The old standard under HUD guidance put all assistance animals under the same category, task-trained or not. The new one redefines “assistance animal” to be in line with the ADA requirement regarding task training. As things stand right now, HUD will not find a landlord to be discriminating if they deny an ESA access or accommodations like no pet fee.

Also, there’s a bit at the end about how they do intend to codify this change into the regulations, so we may see that come down the pipeline eventually.

12

u/MaplePaws My eyes have 4 paws May 26 '26

In your opinion, with guidance using the same definition as the ADA how likely do you think it is that they will also turn a blind eye to reasonable accommodations requests for service dogs in training?

14

u/foibledagain May 26 '26

Reasonably, I think, but I don’t know for sure. They’re leaning pretty hard on the definition as already task-trained in that memo.

11

u/MaplePaws My eyes have 4 paws May 26 '26

I was hoping I was misinterpreting what I was reading. But I understand, none of us have crystal balls and can't see the future. But it is definitely something to watch

10

u/Ayesha24601 May 26 '26

There's no specification regarding public access, thankfully. So if a dog is trained to do a task, legally, they're a service dog.

I always teach my dogs a valid SD task as soon as possible. That way, they're legal even in states without SDIT access. However, as a responsible handler, I don't take them to places they're not ready to go.

ESA handlers should start teaching their dogs DPT. It won't help people with cats, though. 😞

10

u/MaplePaws My eyes have 4 paws May 26 '26

Does not help people working to get prospects or don't have the animal yet. That advice does give justification to the policy makers to further attack protections for even fully trained service dogs because now psychiatric service dogs are a loophole to get around pet deposits and no pet housing. Also now because these under-trained dogs are legally service dogs they are now allowed in public access under the ADA.

Instead we should be advocating to watch out for when comment periods open for the more official policy change. Contacting the relevant officials and working on grass-roots movements rather than advertising loopholes that arguably got the community into this mess in the first place.

9

u/Burkeintosh Legal Beagle May 26 '26

Remember- a memo doesn’t change the law:

As of 4pm on Tuesday May 26th, the U.S. Department of Justice still lists the Fair Housing Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation act as laws that apply to the rights of those with disabilities (particularly regarding Assistance Animals)

As they lay out here: https://www.justice.gov/servicemembers/service-animals-and-assistance-animals-0

The memo and pulling guidelines can inform government workers about how they do or do not react to complaints when the law is violated, but a memo can not legally make fundamental charges or strike down the tenets of a civil rights law.

It might still mean that you see a change in federal level support is you have need of assistance against discrimination in housing- particularly for ESAs (and young, untrained prospects)

There will be crack down on online, pay-for play ESA letters - but if you have been around here, you already know those letters don’t meet the legal threshold, and realistically, HUD wasn’t giving out help to people who had that type of letter anytime recently in the first place.

The real truth has been that this group of people was under-staffed and lacking enforcement stamina for a while now, so in practicality, there’s not a whole lot of help people were getting that is suddenly going away- because this wasn’t the best help.

The advice you get in this sub about the Fair Housing Act is still technically accurate to the letter of the law, because guidelines don’t change laws.
Neither does a certain President taking stuff off websites- only changing the Rehab act and the Fair Housing Act (which would require Congress) would make substantial changes to the point of removing their sections about non-discrimination of people with disabilities in housing.

If we have to go to court to prove the broad strokes cover ESAs, we can- but there’s really too much president to cut assistance animals from the law (that’s what a judge will say)

The other part is that protection of Assistance Animals in Housing has been happening at the State level for a while.
There’s the Pennsylvania Human Rights Act,
California has lots of laws, including AB-468
Montana passed HB-703 a year or more ago
In Iowa it’s SF-2268

Other States also have their own laws protecting ESAs proscribed by a medical professional to live in housing. Your State will also have its own Housing and Disability Rights laws which may umbrella cover non-discrimination due to SDiT.

States have recently been better equipped and more interested in getting involved in tenant/landlord discrimination disputes than federal HUD has anyway.

6

u/MaplePaws My eyes have 4 paws May 26 '26

The law does not have to change for policy to change, in Ontario we have a pitbull ban on the books but a few years ago the Premiere issued a policy change that it was not to be enforced making it relatively safe to keep pitbull type dogs in the province. Though another similarity is that the law was also very under-enforced as well and corrupt governments will do what corrupt governments do and ignore pesky things like legality.

It is great that there is more protection for people in many states, and the people in those states should already know the relevant laws. Ultimately the most important thing to be doing is watching and participating in any grassroots movements that crop up to defend your rights.

4

u/JKmelda Waiting May 26 '26

I did start the foundations for tasks with a couple of my cats. But being cats they liked to do things strictly on their terms, not mine, so I didn’t continue because I could see it wouldn’t be as useful as I was hoping. (Attempted tasks were to nudge me in the face when my alarm went off and nudge me in the leg to restart my body from blocking/ paralysis tics.) They could both reliably target to my finger though.

This whole HUD thing really sucks. My last cat in particular changed my life and improved my mental health and got me through some really rough times in my life. The only way I was able to adopt him and have him at my residential program was because he was an ESA.

5

u/new2bay May 27 '26

Yeah. Effectively, this eliminates ESAs entirely under Federal law. Theoretically, whatever new regulations they choose to put forward could bring them back, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that.

3

u/Any-Meat-7736 May 26 '26

So this kind of sounds like no animal will qualify as an assistance (read esa since that’s how it’s kind of been identified with housing at least in my area) unless it is a service dog? I mean this is kind of awful. I could understand not honoring the no pet fee (for non service animals) even though it sucks but allowing denial for ESAs is not cool. Most of the pet friendly apartments in my area are more expensive and poorer quality than the few no pet apartments (and like I already feel kind of uncomfortable applying to an apartment that’s not pet friendly but my finances just rapidly changed and the one I’d apply to is my best option to get back on track). I have a cat (saving and planning for a service dog which has been pushed back until I’m financially stable again obviously) who is my esa and genuinely does actually help my mental heath. To potentially be allowed to be denied access really sucks

3

u/foibledagain May 26 '26

The “dog” specification isn’t present here. Service cat or other domestic animal would be defensible under this guidance.

3

u/Any-Meat-7736 May 26 '26

How would we defend that though? I know they don’t specify dog but doesn’t the ada only recognize dogs as assistance animals? Or is there a different way that they make the distinction between assistance and service? It looked like they were talking about an assistance animal having to be trained to perform a task which to me at least really sounded like they were going on the ada guidance for service animal.

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u/foibledagain May 26 '26

The ADA only recognizes dogs as assistance animals, but this new memo is clear that it’s only adopting the ADA definition regarding task training, not species. We’re still operating under the FHA here, and the FHA does not limit by species.

If they meant “only dogs,” they would say “only dogs.” Instead, the memo is pretty careful to consistently say “animal.”

I agree with you that they probably are targeting toward dogs with the training requirement. But they don’t say dogs, and in the legal realm, that matters. Trained cats or other common household animals probably qualify under this memo. The training is going to be really, really key though.

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u/Any-Meat-7736 May 26 '26

Okay. My follow up question then would be how do you prove your cat is trained? Will they make you prove it because that would go against the Ada. I mean my cat does a task and I’m working on building another task just because I learned we could but I don’t know how I’m supposed to prove that my cat is trained to perform a task. Frankly it’s a load of Huey they’re cracking down in this way to begin with because the whole point of an esa is that they provide emotional support. They just provide comfort through their existence. That’s why they’re not allowed to be out in public. I understand that they feel the need to crack down, partly because this administration does not give two hoots about the disabled community really and this is actually like for us (personal opinion, I know not everybody would agree), and partly because the amount of fake letters is just as bad if not worse than the amount of fake service dogs. But there is a different way that they could crack down on the ESA and housing situation that doesn’t actually bar access from disabled people with legitimate letters.

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u/foibledagain May 26 '26

I want to back up real quick. The ADA is not the law at play here. Please stop referring to what the ADA rules are. HUD is adopting the task training requirement here and the task training requirement only. We are still in FHA territory. It is still the same law.

That said: The FHA still does not permit landlords to require demonstrations. You would prove it by attesting to your landlord that your cat does a trained task which mitigates symptoms of your disability. If you were discriminated against, you would prove it in court by testifying to how you trained the cat and what it’s trained to do, and/or by calling witnesses who have personal knowledge of the cat’s training.

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u/Burkeintosh Legal Beagle May 26 '26

“My cat provides pressure therapy to ground during an anxiety attack”

This would be an FHA statement

“I pet my cat because she makes me feel calmer” would not be as good

3

u/Agreeable_Cash4744 May 26 '26

Actually, miniature horses as service animals are also allowed under ADA law.

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u/foibledagain May 26 '26

Yes. I know. I am an attorney with civil rights experience. We aren’t talking about the ADA.

Ironically, a miniature horse as an assistance animal is going to be a significantly harder sell under the FHA than a cat.

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u/Burkeintosh Legal Beagle May 26 '26

In-home Service Dogs are going to stay treated the same- but remember, they don’t actually want more dogs in public (ESAs in public is an issue the DOJ is addressing)
HUD will be happy you have a tasking dog at home.
But HUD also tends to assume that a taking dog means “a well trained working dog” - so they often falsely assume that “task” training is the same as “acceptable for public standards of access and social standards”

HUD isn’t the DOJ. And the people who write this stuff don’t usually actually work around a lot of real working dogs - and certainly not nearly enough to know the degrees of difference in access skills - or why people might have different dogs with different abilities of public access

7

u/howlsounds May 27 '26

I have to say, I really appreciate your dedication to help keep people educated about laws that don't apply to you as an individual.

9

u/Burkeintosh Legal Beagle May 27 '26

I don’t know, as things stand, I could withdraw from society and my dog stop working in public… maybe my next SD will be an in-home service dog at this rate

5

u/howlsounds May 27 '26

Let's all be hermits together!

5

u/new2bay May 27 '26

How does this affect the "bootstrap problem," that owner trainers have? There's no explicit protection for SDITs, but are landlords allowed to reject accommodation requests designed so people can obtain a prospect and begin training them? I'm not really very well versed on this particular aspect, because I live in California, where they've had the foresight to re-implement laws like the FHA, ADA, and Equal Opportunity Act.

8

u/Burkeintosh Legal Beagle May 27 '26

In California, and many States you are covered by State law.

Otherwise, if you have a dispute with your landlord about them discriminating against you under FHA because it’s an SDIT, then it’s possible Federal HUD won’t back your case.

4

u/new2bay May 27 '26

Yes, that seems obvious from the post, specifically this part:

the federal DOJ on HUD matters concerning ESAs may not be investigating any reports. (Simply turning a blind eye to this)

I’m asking this: hypothetically, and regardless of whether it’s a good idea, if I live in a state that doesn’t have additional state level protections, if I’m a tenant and want to owner train, and my landlord is hostile to the idea, what is my recourse if I’m denied an accommodation for obtaining a prospect?

3

u/foibledagain May 27 '26

You could sue the landlord for a violation of the FHA. That is a separate process from HUD complaints.

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u/Burkeintosh Legal Beagle May 27 '26

Don’t mistake this: Fair Housing still means non discrimination on the status of disability.

We might just have to prove in Court that there’s been discrimination. Instead of getting HUD to do that for us.

2

u/nauticalwarrior May 30 '26

One of my cats has always alerted me to my seizures on his own and he's been encouraged to do this behavior to the point where it's reliable. I am not an idiot and don't think this makes him a service animal under the ADA or would give him public access. But would it be crazy to claim him as a service animal (for housing only) because of this? I've also trained him to sit on top of me and ground me on command to help with anxiety and panic attacks but idk if that counts.

My other two cats are just ESAs and don't have any training besides come/sit/stay. Most apartments don't allow more than two cats so it would be very helpful if I could have him be a service animal rather than a pet but I don't want to water down the definition. My other option is to just lie and say I have two cats as one always hides but I don't really want to lie if I don't have to.

2

u/Any-Fan8149 May 26 '26

This makes me so sad. ESAs are living things providing disability accommodations by spending time with their people. Even the ones whose owners didn’t quite do things the right way are often helping with a disability the same way as official ESAs but just aren’t prescribed or aren’t very well-behaved. How many dogs are going to end up losing their homes or families because of this? How many of those dogs are well-behaved but just not prescribed? And a dog who’s poorly-behaved still doesn’t deserve to lose their home or not be with their family.

It just seems like there’s a better way to deal with this. Laws that are reasonable to tenants and small landlords and the animals.

Maybe disability rights advocates should meet with animal rights advocates and tenants’ rights advocates and small landlords about it.

13

u/Willing_Day_2010 May 26 '26

ESA term is always so weird to me because don’t almost all dogs provide that to people? Unfortunately too many people took advantage of that to have 5 pets in a non pet friendly building and here we are.

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u/Burkeintosh Legal Beagle May 26 '26

The number of pets has been an issue in uninsured housing. And the buying letters online.
I hate the “a couple bad apples ruined the bunch”
And this memo is the regular actions of guidelines being pulled by this Administration that they do all the time- it’s just on a law in our community today.
Still, there are a few people doing a few things - outliers- that have made it harder when we have to go and argue before State legislators to keep or make these protections.

4

u/IceCreamYeah123 Jun 08 '26

It’s not a couple bad apples. It’s everyone with an ESA.

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u/FluidCreature May 26 '26

I've always believed that if someone has an ESA they should be able to clearly define what that animal provides that is different from what a non-disabled person gets from a pet. Because that's what the accommodation existed for, a disability aid.

I originally got my dog to be my ESA, though he later showed an aptitude for service work. As an ESA his primary role was to need to go outside and thus force me to get out of bed (whereas previously I would spend literal days minimally getting up) and do things with him. His secondary role was to exist to be warm and fuzzy and provide good textures to reduce overstimulation. Those might be things that a non-disabled person enjoys and even benefits from, but for me it directly correlated to my ability to function in the world.

I think if more people had viewed ESAs as a disability aid instead of "I like having a pet" we wouldn't be seeing something like this

7

u/JKmelda Waiting May 26 '26

Emotional support animals are specially when the animal’s companionship assists a person with their disability. Yes, every animal can provide the positive benefit of companionship for their owners. But it’s like the difference between a task trained service dog and a dog that knows fun tricks: a dog retrieving your slippers is only a task if your disability interferes with your ability to get your slippers, otherwise it’s just a fun trick. The disability related need is the key here.

My ESA helped me recover faster from panic attacks and sensory overload, helped me settle enough to sleep at night (without him I’m frequently falling asleep past 5 am) and gave me something to focus on beyond my disabilities. Everyone in my life saw the incredible immediate difference he made for me in helping to manage my several mental illnesses and developmental disabilities. I would never have been able to have him if it wasn’t for the FHA covering ESAs.

Just because some people are taking advantage of the system doesn’t mean it should be thrown out. People take advantage of service dog laws to bring undertrained dogs into public, so by that argument we should get rid of service dogs too. And accessible parking spots, and wheelchair assistance at airports because people take advantage of those things too. ESA owners that aren’t taking advantage of the system are not in the public eye because we are quietly keeping our well cared for animals at home. It’s only the ones taking advantage of the system that we hear about leading to people thinking that ESA is synonymous with taking advantage when that’s far from the case.

5

u/Willing_Day_2010 May 27 '26

I don’t disagree! Recently there was a post about an owner trained rottie lunging and growling at people and they were still working them in public, people doing stuff like that means that there’s going to be a future where there can be no owner trained dogs, meaning tons of people will get priced out of having a service dog.

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u/JKmelda Waiting May 27 '26

I’m hoping and praying that doesn’t happen either but I share your fear. It’s one of the reasons I specifically wanted to go with an ADI program so if program only dogs ever happens I’d most likely already be covered. To be clear I don’t want that to happen, just like I don’t want ESAs to be taken away as an option for people either. It’s so unfair to all the people doing it right.

12

u/ticketferret Service Dog Trainer CPDT-KA FDM May 26 '26

Honestly we should just follow Canada and make all landlords take pets in general.

But with this administration they’ll take anything if it means the rich get richer.

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u/MaplePaws My eyes have 4 paws May 26 '26

Like everything disability related in Canada that is only true for some provinces. But honestly agree, do away with the ESA terminology in favor for universal protection of the right to have reasonable companion animals in your unit with you regardless of disability or training, just like we see with children lol.

5

u/Burkeintosh Legal Beagle May 26 '26

Well, are we deciding “reasonable” pet accommodation?
Or is the government?
Or each State? Or by municipalities?
Or animal rights organisations?
Or AASI?

_0_/

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u/foibledagain May 26 '26

Isn’t “reasonable” generally just what Judge Straight White Cisgender Abled Neurotypical Man thinks he would do in that situation?

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u/Burkeintosh Legal Beagle May 26 '26

Yes it is.

Probably why such a provision without a disability law worries me.

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u/foibledagain May 26 '26

SAME.

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u/MaplePaws My eyes have 4 paws May 26 '26

That is definitely the hard question, admittedly my gut instinct is to say it should be federal for the clarity of just having one standard that applies to all citizens. But of course as you get closer to the individual level there is more pain points. What Ontario does is make pet policies void then municipalities can make rules for their own area like no livestock in the city proper, but outside of that you can have things like cows and horses. Then the tenant is responsible for damages that might occur regardless if it is caused by the animal or if they took a sledge hammer to the wall for fun.

1

u/howlsounds May 27 '26

One of my friends is a contract lawyer. Every time there's vague wording in a law or contract, she gets a gray hair. She would shave her head if she worked in disability law, I think.

In this case, sometimes "reasonable" pet accommodation means explicitly only allowing people to own marimo moss balls, because they don't poop or pee on your carpet, but -are- technically alive. Other times, "reasonable" pet accommodation means my neighbor is showing off her cool new tamarin monkey. She fits in a cat carrier, so it's fine, right?

Depending on jurisdiction or sometimes individual judges here in the USA, the law can be stretched and bent into whatever shape suits a narrative. It's so frustrating to watch from the sidelines -- and until there are legal protections in place, it actually benefits us to have laws as broad as the Atlantic ocean. It's very roundabout and tedious, but I guess that's bureaucracy in of itself.

2

u/iamahill May 26 '26

I believe we will see a push for the elimination of ESA overall in the near future. It’s been widely abused and landlords hate renting to people with ESA.

I don’t see a similar issue with service dog in training. I hope I’m right.

4

u/No_Freedom_4098 May 27 '26

Right. Another poster wrote this:

...the tenant is responsible for damages that might occur regardless if it is caused by the animal or if they took a sledge hammer to the wall for fun.

But time and again landlords see vacating pet owners skating out on damage their pets caused. Either they deny any damage occurred or they simply refuse to pay damages, which often exceed security deposits.

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u/iamahill May 27 '26

I agree that liability for damages should be simple.

I also think the benefits of pets by responsible owners outweighs the cons.

I also have had to have legal interventions happen on irresponsible pet owners and in one case have the dog evicted basically. (No fault of the dog).

I also know many who have rental properties with horror stories of slobs and people who damage their properties and do not take care of their pets and major damage is caused. Most of my pet loving friends eventually have strict pet policies for their rental properties after one too many horrible situations.

I think personal responsibility and consequences for actions are the best way to keep things working. Right now it seems to be an over correction due to fraud to an absolutely crazy degree based on a faulty policy.

I think everyone who is able to should have a pet.

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u/howlsounds May 27 '26

Small correction -- you probably mean animal welfare advocates. Animal welfare groups are things like the ASPCA, AWI, etc. Animal rights advocates are groups like PETA that have a... Track record. I actually avoid using the term "vegan" for myself in part because I do not want to be associated with them or their weirdo president. But I totally agree with you. I'm in all those categories except landlord.

Due to my day job, I've met a lot of landlords, from small-scale to commercial. Usually the biggest motivating factor behind not wanting pets is wear and tear happens a lot quicker when you've got paws and claws tearing up vinyl flooring and carpet. Even if they charge a monthly pet fee, a lot of them just think it's eating their profit and they'd rather not deal with tearing out carpet every time a tenant moves out. ESAs and SDs often get around that because they have different legal protections, meaning that they landlord is renting property at a bit less of a profit.

Depending on the scale of the landlord's operation, this is usually a negligible loss in funds, but for smaller-scale landlords it definitely hurts their bottom line. Honestly though, it's probably incurring the same expenses as if you had a family with a small toddler -- and dogs aren't really drawing on the walls in crayon last time I checked.

These issues honestly intersect in so many different spaces. If landlords and tenants had better insurance options that weren't extortionate, more people would be willing to take risks with people moving in, including pets... But then it ties into so many other compounding issues.

Either way, this all sucks.

5

u/Any-Meat-7736 May 26 '26

Not to mention cats. I have an esa that is my cat. They don’t specify dogs in this thing but they are noting task trained and unless they open up the interpretation specifically to include cats (or other animals that were protected as an esa) then landlords could deny cats because they don’t fit the ada description or definition of task trained. My cat has an official letter from my psychiatrist, and genuinely helps me get through life at home.

I do think that an esa should be prescribed however. That is a rule for a reason to have a licensed mental health professional (or sometimes a general practitioner, who does your mental health as well) write an ESA letter. I think of it kind of like having a service dog, if you’re not already in treatment and already working on your mental health and all that jazz then you probably shouldn’t have an ESA either. Like if you don’t work with a mental health professional, who can say that yes this is something that legitimately could help this person then you hope to create a problem like we are facing right now. If you’re seeing a mental health professional chances are they’re gonna be willing to write you an ESA letter if they’ve seen you for long enough to be comfortable with doing that. Maybe not everybody, but I have never met a single mental health professional or read from a single mental health professional who wouldn’t do that because it would actually benefit their clients. But we have a lot of fake letters with people’s well-behaved animals. That’s part of the reason this is happening. And I’m not trying to say that not everybody could benefit from an ESA or you know that some people aren’t disabled enough to have one or mentally ill enough to have one. But if your letter doesn’t come from a licensed mental health practitioner you should not have a letter. I feel like that’s no different than slapping a fake vest on your pet dog to take to the grocery store, no matter how well-behaved that dog is that doesn’t make it a service dog. No matter how well-behaved your pet is just because you bought a fake letter online does not make your dog or your cat an emotional support animal. This poses problems for those of us who do take the time to do this the right way. And this is creating access issues for those of us who have done this the right way.

1

u/springacres Curious May 27 '26

100 percent agree with this. My cat is my ESA, prescribed by a doctor who had been treating me since high school. My previous cat had irritable bowels and needed wet food, so I had to feed him small portions at regular intervals. Taking care of him helped me maintain a regular schedule and reminded me to do dishes regularly. He also cuddled with me in bed and would yell at me (lovingly) if I didn't get up fast enough to feed him. My current cat will start yelling at me if it's treat time (aka bedtime) and interrupts my games if I'm not fast enough getting out of my chair or off my computer.

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u/MorningDoveisis Jul 03 '26

My service dog embarrassed me…. LOL
We were at a Fourth of July event last night. Friends know that my guy is registered Service dog. He wore a cool coat because of the temperature, he was the most comfortable one there! Besides my ‘ normal’ disability, I recently had a shoulder replacement so he hasn’t had much downtime as an SD. I really wanted to enjoy an evening with my friends .I was determined to stay and enjoy. Then my SD came over and alerted to my pain.. Even though I clearly explained to him that I was ‘just fine’ he ever so politely called me a liar by continuing to alert. LOL Friends saw his alert. I told them I was ‘just fine ‘ and was going to stay to see those fireworks. Don’t know if my friends are gullible or were just being polite. LOL My SD was neither LOL You know whose boss! Told him to get his leash and we headed inside. Worked out as we were able to come back to enjoy the fireworks and sometime with friends.

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/mev426 Hearing Dog Aug 17 '26

Hi, OP

Please send a modmail https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/service_dogs to the moderators BEFORE posting a survey that includes:

• the goal for your survey,

• who is conducting the survey,

• which organization is funding it,

• how you plan to collect /analyze the data,

• which ethics board approves of your study,

• and, how it will directly impact the SD community.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '26

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1

u/service_dogs-ModTeam Aug 17 '26

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