FH Hot Topics: Assistance Animals: Unique Animals and Multiple Assistance Animals

By: Hope Williams, Supervising Attorney

When Fair Housing Project staff conduct trainings, we often are asked:

• Can a person have a unique animal as an assistance animal?
• Can a household have more than one assistance animal?

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued guidance in 2020 entitled “Assessing a Person’s Request to Have an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the Fair Housing Act” (“HUD Assistance Animal Guidance”) that can help tenants, homeowners, and housing providers evaluate situations when these issues come up.

Unique Animals       

An assistance animal is an animal that helps a person with disabilities by performing tasks and/or by providing therapeutic emotional support. Housing providers cannot exclude an assistance animal or charge pet fees or deposits for these animals if a person with a disability shows they need the assistance animal as a reasonable accommodation. In most cases, an assistance animal is a domesticated animal that is typically kept in a home, such as a dog, cat, rabbit, hamster, gerbil, fish, or other small animal.  But sometimes a person may not be able to have a typical household animal due to allergies, or because the person does not get a therapeutic benefit from such an animal.

The HUD Assistance Animal Guidance states housing providers should approve requests for reasonable accommodations if the person with a disability meets a “substantial burden” to show a disability-related need for the specific unique animal or type of animal. This means that the person seeking the accommodation may need to show why a typical household animal could not serve as their assistance animal. The guidance gives the example of a person with paralysis who has a capuchin monkey as an assistance animal because the monkey can open bottles, turn lights on and off, and retrieve items in cabinets, all tasks a dog or cat could not perform.

If a person with a disability needs a unique animal as a reasonable accommodation, they should work with their therapist or medical provider to get a letter documenting that it is the therapist’s or medical provider’s professional opinion that the person needs the unique animal as a reasonable accommodation, and why the medical provider believes that. A housing provider is not entitled to a tenant or homeowner’s medical records to prove a disability or need for a reasonable accommodation; a letter that verifies that the person has a disability that substantially impacts a major life activity, and that the medical provider believes the accommodation requested is necessary for the therapeutic benefit of the individual should be sufficient.

Multiple Assistance Animals

Although most requests for an accommodation for an assistance animal involve a single animal, there are circumstances when a person or household may need more than one assistance animal. This could happen when a person with a disability needs a service dog that performs disability-related tasks for the individual, such as alerting a person with a seizure disorder when they are showing signs of having a seizure, and the same person needs a cat that provides therapeutic emotional support. Another circumstance is when several persons in a household each have a need for a specific, individual assistance animal.

The HUD Assistance Animal Guidance recognizes that there may be a need for more than one assistance animal and states that the person with a disability needs to demonstrate in a reasonable accommodation request that there is disability-related need for each assistance animal.

A recent case, Whiteaker v. City of Southgate, 651 F. Supp. 3d 893 (E.D. Mich. 2023), involved both unique assistance animals and multiple assistance animals. Mr. Whiteaker, who had major depressive disorder, sought a reasonable accommodation from the City of Southgate, Michigan for an exception to their ordinance prohibiting keeping non-domesticated animals to allow him to keep his six emotional support chickens.  The City conceded that Mr. Whiteaker had a disability and that a chicken could be an emotional support animal, but they denied his request to keep six emotional support chickens.  The Court found that there was evidence that could show that it would be detrimental to Mr. Whiteaker’s mental health to make him get rid of part of the flock, and that evidence could show the flock of chickens acted as a unit. The court also found that there was evidence that could show that having the flock of chickens was necessary for Mr. Whiteaker to have equal access to his housing. The case later settled.

When tenants, homeowners, or housing providers, including landlords, homeowner associations, and cities encounter questions related to assistance animals, the HUD Assistance Animal Guidance is an invaluable resource to consult to ensure compliance with the Fair Housing Act to evaluate each individual and singular situation.