Assistance Animals and Fair Housing: Navigating Reasonable Accommodations Webinar

The purpose of this webinar is to educate housing providers, including HUD grantees, such as representatives of entitlement communities, participating jurisdictions (PJs), public housing agencies (PHAs), HUD housing counseling agencies and others involved in housing transactions, as well as persons with disabilities who seek reasonable accommodations related to assistance animals.

The information presented in this webinar is intended to be an explanation of FHEO-2020-01, a guidance document which HUD issued to provide housing providers with a set of best practices for complying with the Fair Housing Act when assessing requests for reasonable accommodations for assistance animals.

This webinar will also provide best practices for housing providers and individuals with disabilities to use when addressing and making requests for reasonable accommodations to allow assistance animals in housing where individuals with disabilities reside or seek to reside.

At its completion, viewers of this webinar will have a better understanding of their responsibilities when they receive reasonable accommodation requests related to assistance animals. It will also provide persons with disabilities with information about their fair housing rights related to requests for assistance animals and how to file a fair housing complaint if they believe their rights have been violated.

Webinar Agenda

• Introduction and overview of assistance animals under federal law
• Description of fair housing laws related to assistance animals, including the definition of disability and nondiscrimination requirements
• Processes for requesting a reasonable accommodation for an assistance animal
• Processes for responding to reasonable accommodation requests
• A video presentation including animated skits with examples of violations of the law when a reasonable accommodation request for an assistance animal is made and how to avoid and address such violations
• Key takeaways & concluding remarks

Webinar Presenters

• Demetria McCain: Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (HUD, FHEO)
• Kate Cawvey: Program Analyst, Policy & Legislative Initiatives Division (HUD, FHEO)
• Sarah Myers: Equal Opportunity Specialist Fellow, Policy & Legislative Initiatives Division (HUD, FHEO)

Who Should View the Webinar and Leverage Other TA Products?

• Housing providers, including HUD grantees, such as representatives of entitlement communities, PJs, PHAs, and HUD housing counseling agencies
• Individuals with disabilities, their families, and caregivers

Additional Resources in This Suite

• Assistance Animals and Fair Housing: Navigating Reasonable Accommodations - Fact Sheet
• Assistance Animals and Fair Housing: Navigating Reasonable Accommodations - Interactive Tool

Related Materials and Supplemental Resources

• Assistance Animals and Fair Housing: Navigating Reasonable Accommodations - Webinar - Slides
• Assistance Animals and Fair Housing: Navigating Reasonable Accommodations - Webinar - Transcript
• Notice FHEO-2020-01: Assessing a Person's Request to Have an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the Fair Housing Act (January 28, 2020)
• Joint Statement of HUD and DOJ on Reasonable Accommodations Under the Fair Housing Act

Sponsored By

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity (FHEO)

Disability Access and Reasonable Accommodation Request(s)

This webinar is 508 compliant. Please contact fairhousing@abtassoc.com for specific reasonable accommodation requests.

Contact

For information, please contact fairhousing@abtassoc.com.