A new policy change from the Trump administration has raised fears that thousands of people with disabilities, and the animals with which they live, may be forced out of their homes. The tightened grip of service animal restrictions is poised to disqualify many animals that landlords had been required to accept, forcing the people who depend on these animals to give them up or give up the places where they currently live.
HUD changes housing exemptions for assistance animals
The New York Times reported that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) plans to update its policy concerning federal requirements that landlords accept tenants with disabilities having service animals or emotional support animals in otherwise animal-free properties. Under the new regulations described in a memo issued by HUD, emotional support animals would no longer qualify for exemptions in animal-free residences. The memo dismisses the utility of many emotional support animals, arguing that “an entire industry has emerged to convert pets into emotional support animals.” Landlords would still be required to accept service animals, but the requirements for an animal qualifying as a service animal would be made more strict. The changes are being implemented “effective immediately.”
Thousands of vulnerable people could be impacted
The changes represent a narrowing of enforcement of a provision of the Fair Housing Act that exempts “assistance animals” from being excluded from no-pet buildings or subject to pet fees from landlords. Experts warn that the policy change will make thousands of service animals and emotional support animals currently ineligible for the residences where they and their owners currently live. Attorney Eric Hein, a former HUD official who once enforced fair housing laws, warned that thousands of people could be left ineligible for waivers under the new enforcement rules. Hein noted that people with mental or psychiatric disabilities, including many military veterans, would be hit particularly hard by the changes. “Those cases are a not insignificant portion of the number of cases that HUD investigates,” Hein said.
Controversial HUD policy changes under Trump
The new, more exclusionary policy is part of a larger trend under the second Trump administration of making housing regulations more restrictive and narrowing enforcement of the Fair Housing Act. Cuts made by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency eliminated 65% of the staff of the Office of Fair Housing. Remaining staff complained that guidance from HUD leaders under Trump, such as internal messages that called past housing discrimination cases “artificial, arbitrary and unnecessary” or said that the agency would no longer pursue “tenuous theories of discrimination,” basically eliminated their ability to enforce housing discrimination laws. The Trump administration has pursued various controversial policies through HUD, such as attempting to eliminate Section 8, which provides housing vouchers for low-income Americans, and using the department’s website to post partisan messages to disparage Democrats.
Since President Trump returned to the White House, many of his policies have been seen as making life more difficult for many Americans and especially for people who belong to marginalized groups. Now, a large number of Americans with disabilities may find themselves either without housing or forced to give up the animals that provide them physical or emotional support.