Emotional support animals may finally be getting their leashes shortened.  In a positive sign for sanity, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) published updated enforcement guidance on May 22, 2026 (the “Guidance”) that pulls back on the ability of animal owners to seek reasonable accommodations from housing providers for emotional support animals. For any board member that has dealt with issues related to emotional support animals, this Guidance is welcomed news and, if nothing else, is a signal of a possible return to a more rational approach to fair housing matters.

     To understand the impact of the Guidance, a quick review of applicable fair housing laws will be helpful. Both condominiums and residential subdivisions are subject to the federal Fair Housing Act (the “FHA”) and nearly identical fair housing statutes adopted and enshrined in the Ohio Revised Code. While these overarching regulations deal with many issues, the most common encountered provisions within community associations are the requirements that associations must allow reasonable modifications and reasonable accommodations to help alleviate and address the needs of disabled residents. More specifically, the most commonly sought reasonable accommodation that community associations tend to deal with are residents seeking accommodations to a community’s pet rules and restrictions.

     While most associations are more than willing to work with disabled residents to meet their needs, the reality is that many people have been taking advantage of the reasonable accommodation process as it relates to emotional support animals. Whereas a service animal is an animal that has received specialized training to help a disabled individual by performing a specific task (such as a seeing eye dog or a dog that recognizes and warns of the onset of a potential seizure), this is not the case for emotional support animals. Emotional support animals do not require any training and do not perform a specific function they simply provide emotional support. Based on previous HUD guidance, it was determined that emotional support animals needed to be treated in nearly the same manner as trained service animals, and, as a result, housing providers and associations were essentially forced to grant accommodations to allow or otherwise exempt emotional support animals from applicable prohibitions or restrictions. Since emotional support animals require no training, a cottage industry has exploded to exploit this loophole, and now communities are seeing their pet restrictions largely become negated because it is simply so easy for residents to claim their animals are necessary emotional support animals and demand accommodations.  

     The Guidance seeks to curtail this emotional support animal loophole. It is doing this by stating that HUD’s office of Fair Housing will no longer be finding that housing providers are required to allow emotional support animals unless the emotional support animal “has been individually trained to perform work or perform tasks directly related to the complainant’s disability.”  In other words, HUD is now reviewing the reasonable accommodation review process for emotional support animals very much the same way that it has for service animals.

     What does the shift, discussed in the Guidance mean for emotional support animals and Ohio community associations?  While the Guidance is certainly a move in the right direction, boards still need to exercise caution when processing reasonable accommodation requests related to emotional support animals.  First, as noted above, Ohio has its own fair housing laws and there is a significant amount of case law that has developed around this issue. Neither this case law nor the Ohio statutes go away because of the Guidance, and it will take some time to see how Ohio’s enforcement agencies, such as the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, react to the guidance. Additionally, it is likely the advocates of emotional support animals, and those that have made a living taking advantage of the system, will also react to the Guidance, and we may quickly see letters from questionable on-line health care providers be replaced with dubious certificates of specific training for emotional support animals.  While this area is in this state of flux, it is prudent to continue to treat any request related to an emotional support animal seriously. Hopefully, more clarity will be forthcoming. The Guidance notes that HUD does intend to engage in the more formal process of adopting rules in this area, which would be a very welcome development, as this area desperately needs more clarity. Still, it must be noted that the rulemaking process is not quick, so that clarity will not be available for some time.

     If your association receives a request for either a reasonable modification or reasonable accommodation, or if a resident references a disability or fair housing request or claim, please reach out to our attorneys at (614) 228-0207, so that we can help guide you through the process and protect your association.