Where Can You Take Your Emotional Support Animal?

Emotional support animals are animals that provide therapeutic support to a person with a mental disability. They can be dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs or any other type of pet. These animals provide unconditional love, affection and companionship and provide their owners with a sense of purpose. Many people with disabilities like depression and anxiety disorders benefit from emotional support animals.

Housing

The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 requires landlords to make reasonable accommodations for tenants with disabilities. As the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law explains, courts typically interpret that to mean that, in addition to other accommodations, landlords must allow tenants to have emotional support animals even if they typically do not allow pets if tenants are disabled and health care professionals recommend emotional support animals as part of their treatment. Tenants may be required to provide a letter from their treating physician saying they are disabled and that an emotional support animal is recommended.

Emotional support animals must be reasonably well-behaved and kept under control by their owners; they can’t damage property or disturb other tenants. Landlords cannot charge additional fees to tenants that need emotional support animals, but tenants are responsible for paying for any damage done to the property by their animals.

Flying

Airline regulations require airlines to permit people with mental health-related disabilities to fly with an emotional support animal in the cabin of the airplane if they have the appropriate documentation from their treating physician. A letter from the treating physician must state that the person in question has a mental health-related disability that is included in the DSM-IV (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual used to diagnose mental illnesses), that the disability significantly limits one or more major life activity (things like seeing, hearing, walking, communicating and thinking), and that an emotional support animal is recommended as part of the person’s treatment.

Emotional support animals flying in the cabin of a plane must be well-behaved and not disturb other passengers or airline staff. Certain types of animals, including ferrets and reptiles, are usually not permitted to fly in the cabin even when designated as emotional support animals because they are considered a safety risk.

Businesses

There are no laws that permit emotional support animals to accompany their owners into businesses where pets are not normally permitted. Federal law allows people with disabilities that use service dogs to take their dogs into most public places, including stores and restaurants, but emotional support animals are not the same as service dogs. Service dogs have been trained to perform specific tasks that mitigate a handler’s disability. If you want to take your emotional support animal into a store or other business that does not normally allow pets, you can ask the manager or business owner for permission. They are not required to allow you to bring your pet, however, and emotional support animals are generally considered to be pets.

Sample Letter for a Service Dog in No Pets Housing

Here is a sample letter for a landlord from a doctor or other health care provider stating you are disabled and need a service dog.  A similar letter could be used to state you need an emotional support animal.  The letter should be written on letterhead and dated, of course.  And of course, you'd put in your own name and list some of the things you have difficulty doing. Note that the letter does not need to say what your disability is, just that you are disabled.

Dear Landlord:

Kelly is my patient, and has been under my care for about six years. She meets the definition of disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as the Fair Housing Act. Due to her disability, Kelly has a number of functional limitations. For instance, she has difficulty bending forward to pick up items from the floor or to remove laundry from the clothes dryer. She may have difficulty retrieving medication or a telephone if she needs to call for help. In order to  alleviate these difficulties and to enhance her ability to live independently and to fully use and enjoy her dwelling, Kelly needs a trained service dog to assist her. A specially trained service dog will help to mitigate her disability and improve her quality of life .

Sincerely,

Doctor

Emotional Support Cat

Today I saw my psychiatrist and needed him to sign a form designating Whiskers as an emotional support cat for my housing. There is a box on the form to check if the assistance animal is individually trained to assist a person with a disability, and I checked no and explained that she is for emotional support and no training is required (because an emotional support animal is different than a service dog).

The office manager was looking at the form and asked, "So a cat doesn't have to be trained?"

I was like, "Um, it's a cat. Have you ever tried to train a cat?"

She looked kind of confused so I asked, "Have you ever had a cat?"

Whiskers says she is pretty well on the way to having me trained but I have not yet trained her to do a thing.

If you want to read more about  emotional support animals and housing, check out this post.

What Law Applies? Part II

 While the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to may situations and places you may go with your service dog, it doesn't apply everywhere.  Go here to read about where the ADA does apply.  But here are some other laws you should know about.

The Fair Housing Act Amendment (FHA)

This is the law that says landlords must make reasonable accommodations for tenants with disabilities. That means service dogs, emotional support animals (which don't have to be dogs) and service dogs in training must be allowed in no pets housing and that landlords can't charge any additional fees or deposit for these animals.  Some landlords are exempt from the FHA, though.  For instance, they have to have more than four rental units in order for the FHA to apply.  They can require  you to provide documentation verifying you need a reasonable accommodation but it doesn't have to say what your disability is.  If you feel you've been denied access or discriminated against under this law, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Air Carriers Access Act (ACAA)

This is the law that says airlines flying within the US must make reasonable accommodations for customers with disabilities.  This means they must allow service dogs and emotional support animals (which don't have to be dogs) to fly in the cabin of the plane and they cannot charge an additional fee for the animals.  Airlines can require you to provide documentation if you want to fly with a psychiatric service dog or an emotional support animal, though.   If you feel you've been denied access or discriminated against under this law, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

 And for more information, please visit this Guide to Disability Rights Laws provided by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Can a Therapist Write a Letter, Making Your Pet a Service Dog?

I have a friend, not a close friend but a friend, who is a therapist.  A couple days ago she asked me a question.  She said she sometimes has clients that ask her to please write them a letter saying they need their pet to be a service dog so they can take their dog into public places.  They say their dog  helps their depression or anxiety, so they want their dog to be a service dog.  She was wondering if a dog is really a service dog if it just makes someone feel better or feel less anxious or less depressed.

It's a great question.  The answer is no, if all the dog does is provide comfort or emotional support, it's not a service dog.  It might be an emotional support animal, but it's not a service dog.

A service dog must be trained to perform specific tasks that mitigate a person's disability.  And the person must be disabled in order to have a service dog.  Not everyone that suffers from anxiety, depression or other psychological problems is disabled by their condition.

An emotional support animal is a pet (doesn't have to be a dog) belonging to a person with a psychiatric disability (like anxiety or depression) that is recommended by their doctor, therapist or other healthcare provider as part of their treatment plan.  Again, the person must be disabled, and not everyone with anxiety or depression is disabled by their condition.

Service dogs have to be trained to perform specific tasks to mitigate a person's disability but emotional support animals don't need any special training.

Service dogs are allowed to go most places with their handlers, including restaurants and stores.  Emotional support animals are not.  In most cases, landlords must allow people to have emotional support animals, even if they do not normally allow pets (some landlords are exempt from this law, however), and people are allowed to fly within the U.S. with an emotional support animal in the cabin of the plane.  Same goes with service dogs.  You cannot take an emotional support animal to a restaurant, grocery store, hotel that does not allow pets, doctor's office, movie theater, etc. though, unless you get permission from the manager (and in some cases, the manager cannot legally give permission; health codes prevent them from allowing an emotional support animal in a restaurant, for instance).

You don't need a letter from your therapist to take your service dog into public places.  In fact, it is illegal for business owners to ask to see such a letter.  If you are disabled and your dog is trained to perform tasks that mitigate your disability, then you are allowed to take your service dog with you.

If you are not disabled, though, or if your dog is not trained to perform actual tasks that mitigate your disability, even if you have a letter from your therapist, you are not legally allowed to take your dog into public places where pets are not permitted.  A letter from your therapist does not override the law.

If you have an emotional support animal, you may be required to provide a letter from your therapist or other healthcare provider in order to fly with your emotional support animal or in order to live in no pets housing with your emotional support animal.

Here are links to some articles with more information about emotional support animals:

Where Can You Take Your Emotional Support Animal?

Keeping an Emotional Support Animal in an Apartment that Doesn't Allow Pets

Flying with an Emotional Support Animal

Housing for Disabled People

Sometime in the next month, I am going to be moving.  That has been the plan since Mike and I ended our relationship several months ago.  We've still been sharing a home up 'til now, partly for financial reasons, and partly because it's taken me a while to find affordable housing.

You see, most people that are on disability, whether that's SSI or SSDI, can't afford the market rent on most apartments.  The last time I lived in an apartment, which was nearly ten years ago, I paid $425 a month in rent.  I also had to pay utilities, of course.  It would be very difficult for me to afford that on my current income, supposing I could even find a decent apartment with such low rent today.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a number of programs to help people with low incomes afford housing.  One program involves subsidizing rent for people with disabilities that meet specific income guidelines.  They way it usually works is that a private management company has a contract with HUD  that allows the company to rent apartments to people with disabilities and base their rent on their income.  HUD pays the remainder of the rent.  (By the way, if you want to look for apartment complexes in your area that offer subsidized housing for people with disabilities in your area, check out the HUD website here.)

In many ways, it's a great deal for people that otherwise couldn't afford housing.  You get cheap rent and HUD requires the apartment meet certain criteria and pass an inspection by HUD (so it can't be a total dump).  The downsides are that there aren't enough of these apartments for all the people needing affordable housing, there are usually long waiting lists (sometimes two years or more), the apartments are usually small and not the nicest you've ever seen, and you have to deal with all the red tape typically involved with getting benefits from a government agency to get into one.

I applied for an apartment at two different apartment complexes at the beginning of December.  I expected it to take at least six months to get an apartment.  However, I've now been informed that I am at the top of the waiting list and I expect to be moving sometime next month.  I'm both excited and overwhelmed at the prospect.

Last week I had to go complete some additional paperwork for the apartment.  It was a reminder of why I hate having to deal with government agencies in order to get benefits I need.  They never make it easy.  It's almost like they go out of their way to make it as difficult and stressful as possible.  They give you a bunch of forms to fill out and the forms are so confusing that even I, with a college education, have trouble figuring out how to fill them out.  When I ask questions, the person that gave me the forms has trouble figuring them out, too.  They ask for documents at that last minute that I don't have or don't know how to get, and say they need those specific documents even though I have other documents that seem like they would serve the same purpose or even work better. 

They do not tell me in advance that I'm going to need certain things; for instance, they told me four days ago that I could claim the costs of my vitamins as a medical expense, which would reduce my rent, if I had a letter from my physician saying they were medically necessary and receipts to verify the cost.    Well, I saw my doctor two weeks ago and could have asked her to sign such a letter then, but I didn't know then that I would need such a letter.  I have purchased plenty of vitamins since I applied for housing in December but I didn't save the receipts because I didn't know I was going to need them.  Do you save all your vitamin receipts?  Who does that, if they don't have a specific reason to save them?  I suggested that in the future it might be helpful to give people a list of documents they will need when they first turn in an application, which I thought was a very helpful and reasonable suggestion, but the person I made the suggestion to did not seem to appreciate my input on the matter.

The whole experience reminded me of when I was first applying for disability and other benefits, how stressful it was, and how dehumanizing.  That's what prompted me to post my poem, "Confession," the other night.

I don't actually like the apartment I will be moving to very much.  I will write more about that later.  I like where it is located, I like the fact that it is super affordable, I like the fact that it  has a locked security door with buzzer and intercom, I like the fact that there is onsite laundry, etc.  I like plenty of things about it.  Just not the actually apartment.  It's small and ugly.  But you don't get many choices about where to live when you are disabled and have a very limited income.