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June 6, 2026

Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC | An important public service announcement from AAMP member Steven M. Williams Managing Partner of Cohen Seglias Palla Greenhall & Furman PC

Since 2008, HUD has recognized the concept of assistance animals (untrained) as opposed to service animals (trained) in the housing arena. This concept has evolved over the years, resulting most recently in 2020 when HUD issued its guidance distinguishing service from assistance animals (the “2020 Guidance”). In the 2020 Guidance, HUD expressly stated that assistance animals are not pets and have the same fair housing protections as service animals.

Specifically, HUD stated that “animals providing ‘emotional support’ – as well as trained service animals – are not pets.’”

In light of President Trump’s instruction to federal agencies to review their enforcement activities to ensure that they are necessary to “discharge their legal obligations, protect public safety, and advance the national interest,” HUD began looking at its position regarding ESAs. After this review, Craig Turner, the Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, issued his internal Memorandum dated May 22, 2026 in which he stated that he is permanently rescinding the 2020 Guidance and made the following statements:

  • Effective immediately, for complaints related to animal-related reasonable accommodations, FHEO will find reasonable cause and recommend charges only for those cases involving animals trained to provide disability-related assistance.
  • Going forward, FHEO will use the training component of the ADA’s definition for service animals to assess animal-related reasonable accommodation complaints under the Fair Housing Act.
  • FHEO will find reasonable cause for failure to provide a reasonable accommodation involving the waiver of a pet policy only where the animal has been individually trained to perform work or perform tasks directly related to the complainant’s disability.
  • While requests to waive pet policies for animals trained to perform specific disability-related services are presumptively reasonable, requests to waive pet policies for untrained ESAs are not. FHEO no longer expects housing providers to categorically extend accommodations for trained assistance animals to untrained ESAs.

In other words, HUD’s current position is that untrained ESAs are not protected under fair housing, and it will not issue charges against a landlord who insists that ESAs are pets subject to all pet policies and fees. However, HUD’s guidance is not law, which Mr. Turner recognized when he stated that “[n]othing in this enforcement guidance affects the rights of parties to seek redress through a private action in court.”

Importantly, the position set forth in Mr. Turner’s Memorandum does not change the Fair Housing Act, nor does it change state and local laws involving housing discrimination. Many state and federal courts have recognized that ESAs have fair housing protections. While HUD’s internal guidance means that HUD will not charge landlords who refuse to accept ESAs, it does not mean that those landlords cannot be held liable for violating fair housing principals if sued in the state or federal courts, or if complaints are filed with the Pennsylvania Human Resources Commission (PHRC) or local fair housing agencies. The state and federal courts are not bound by HUD’s guidance, nor are the PHRC or local fair housing agencies. Thus, if landlords were to begin refusing ESA requests based solely

on HUD’s new position, they would still have liability exposure (just not in an enforcement action by HUD).

In my opinion, landlords should continue to evaluate accommodation requests on an individualized basis and should not assume that all ESA requests can now be denied. I suggest that until/unless the state and federal courts address HUD’s new guidance and/or the Fair Housing Act and the applicable state and local laws are changed, landlords should not change their existing policies and should continue to assess each accommodation request based on the specific facts presented.

1 In this Memo, I use the words ESA and assistance animals interchangeably to mean the same thing: those animals that have not been specifically trained to perform a service or task (i.e., service animals).