Lose your animals or lose your housing: Housing instability is one of the top reasons people bring their pet to a shelter for rehoming. In their work with HEART LA and in the South LA city shelter, Zaira Bernal (Paralegal) and Diana Cruz (Program Director/Law Clerk) meet tenants facing similar threats or harassment from landlords all the time, despite protections for Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) laid out in the federal Fair Housing Act. And for individuals with disabilities, getting necessary ESA documentation is blocked by one barrier after another, barriers that are compounded for people who are low income or from marginalized communities.
What can we do? When it comes to keeping individuals with disabilities and their Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) together, knowledge is power.
In this week’s All Call, Zaira and Diana cover the ins and outs of ESA documentation and protections, answered your questions, and offer steps we can take to join the fight for disability and housing justice in our communities.
Takeaways and Resources
- Emotional Support Animals provide comfort and emotional support to someone with a mental, emotional, or physical disability and are protected under federal and state law. While ESAs don’t require formal training, animals designated as service animals do. Both have equal protection within the Fair Housing Act.
- ESAs are not subject to no-pet policies. Pet fees or pet deposits can’t be charged for ESAs, and landlords must provide reasonable accommodations.
- If requested, tenants must provide ESA documentation. That simply means a letter from a knowledgeable third party, like a healthcare provider or caseworker, that affirms they have a need for an ESA because of a disability. But even if an individual is able to access a physical or mental healthcare provider despite systemic roadblocks, the provider often refuses because they are unfamiliar or misinformed about the process and fear legal liability, or face company-wide policies prohibiting ESA letter issuance.
- While working toward long-term policy change, we can also learn from the solutions Diana and Zaira are implementing now. For example, in California, individuals who receive disability benefits can self-certify their need for an ESA. Shelter teams can take advantage of free training at Maddie’s University, request a training tailored to their organization, or reach out for advice from HEART LA, so that they are better equipped to support and advocate alongside community members who feel pressured to give up their support animals to keep their housing.
- To access more HEART LA resources, including sample ESA letters, visit https://www.heartla.org/resourcesforrenters. To learn more about how animal and human well-being intersects with housing equity and policy, check out recent Maddie’s Community Conversation presentations with HEART LA Executive Director Dianne Prado, What’s Housing Policy Got to Do with It? and Housing Equity and Advocacy.
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