HUD Handbook 4350.3 § 2-44

A.       Assistance animals are not pets. They are animals that work, provide
                  assistance, or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, or
                  animals that provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified
                  symptoms or effects of a person's disability. Assistance animals – often referred
                  to as “service animals,” "assistance animals," “support animals,” or “therapy
                  animals” – perform many disability-related functions, including but not limited to
                  guiding individuals who are blind or have low vision, alerting individuals who are
                  deaf or hard of hearing to sounds, providing minimal protection or rescue
                  assistance, pulling a wheelchair, fetching items, alerting persons to impending
                  seizures, or providing emotional support to persons with disabilities who have a
                  disability-related need for such support.

         B.       A housing provider may not refuse to allow a person with a disability to have an
                  assistance animal merely because the animal does not have formal training.
                  Some, but not all, animals that assist persons with disabilities are professionally
                  trained. Other assistance animals are trained by the owners themselves and, in
                  some cases, no special training is required. The question is whether or not the
                  animal performs the disability-related assistance or provides the disability-related
                  benefit needed by the person with the disability.

         C.       A housing provider’s refusal to modify or provide an exception to a "no pets" rule
                  or policy to permit a person with a disability to use and live with an assistance
                  animal would violate Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Fair Housing
                  Act unless:

                  1.       The animal poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others that
                           cannot be reduced or eliminated by a reasonable accommodation,

HUD Occupancy Handbook                              2-41                                                6/07
Chapter 2: Civil Rights and
Nondiscrimination Requirements

                                                              Additional Nondiscrimination and Accessibility
                                                                 Requirements for Persons with Disabilities

                                                                                              Subsection 5:
                                                                  Additional Fair Housing Act Requirements

2.       The animal would cause substantial physical damage to the property of
                          others,

                 3.       The presence of the assistance animal would pose an undue financial
                          and administrative burden to the provider, or

                 4.       The presence of the assistance animal would fundamentally alter the
                          nature of the provider's services.

       D.        The fact that a person has a disability does not automatically entitle him or her to
                 an assistance animal. There must be a relationship between the person’s
                 disability and his or her need for the animal.

       E.        A housing provider may not require an applicant or tenant to pay a fee or a
                 security deposit as a condition of allowing the applicant or tenant to keep the
                 assistance animal. However, if the individual’s assistance animal causes
                 damage to the applicant’s unit or the common areas of the dwelling, at that time,
                 the housing provider may charge the individual for the cost of repairing the
                 damage if the provider regularly charges tenants for any damage they cause to
                 the premises.

Subsection 5: Additional Fair Housing Act Requirements