Is It Still A Zoo Out There? Recent Developments in Managing Assistance Animal Requests.

Over four years ago, on January 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) released Notice FHEO-2020-01 containing definitive guidance regarding how to process and manage requests for assistive animals.

Definitive yes, however apparently also confusing because the questions and complaints keep coming! In this session we’ll explore the parts of the guidance that seem to be driving the questions – and the complaints.

We’ll review the guidance and dive into questions like:

“What is a household animal – where I live, a pot-bellied pig is seen in households all the time, so is it also true in Manhattan?”

“Is there such a thing as a national ESA registry?”

“Must all service animals wear a vest?” and, “Can I ask to see proof of training for service animals?”

“Can I mandate all animals being DNA registered or does that only apply to pets?”

“What about my amenities – can my visually-impaired resident swim with their dog?”

 And the list goes on and on. I know some of these sounds familiar – probably too familiar! Join us for the answers to these and some other questions about everybody’s favorite topic!

Webinar Objectives

• Review the basics of processing accommodations for animals.
• Learn what kind of accommodations we may need to approve.
• Learn how to differentiate between a service animal and a support animal.
• Learn what questions and inquiries may be made regarding the disability and the animal.
• Learn what types of verification and documentation we may require.
• Learn what animals may and may not be allowed as service and/or support animals.
• Learn how to analyze requests for multiple animals.
• Review how to answer questions about why some residents have animals at a no pets property.

Webinar Highlights

• Review of the January 2020 HUD Guidance
• Definitions
• Obligations and requirements
• Processing the accommodation request
• What questions can be asked
• Readily observable, disability-related need, nexus and other terms
• What is a reliable source and what documentation can we require
• Verification process
• The Interactive Process

Who Should Attend

All on-site and multi-site personnel including Regional/Area Managers, Community Managers, Training and HR Professionals.