
Over four years ago, on January 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) released Notice FHEO-2020-01 containing definitive guidance regarding how to process and manage requests for assistive animals.
Definitive yes, however apparently also confusing because the questions and complaints keep coming! In this session we’ll explore the parts of the guidance that seem to be driving the questions – and the complaints.
We’ll review the guidance and dive into questions like:
“What is a household animal – where I live, a pot-bellied pig is seen in households all the time, so is it also true in Manhattan?”
“Is there such a thing as a national ESA registry?”
“Must all service animals wear a vest?” and, “Can I ask to see proof of training for service animals?”
“Can I mandate all animals being DNA registered or does that only apply to pets?”
“What about my amenities – can my visually-impaired resident swim with their dog?”
And the list goes on and on. I know some of these sounds familiar – probably too familiar! Join us for the answers to these and some other questions about everybody’s favorite topic!

Doug Chasick, That Fair Housing Guy™, is the former President of the Fair Housing Institute, Inc. With more than 49 years of investment real estate experience, he began as the Resident Manager of a 524-unit apartment property and has been the President or CEO of five real estate companies, responsible for portfolios of over 28,000 apartments, and more than 8 million square feet of commercial, retail and industrial properties. Doug was awarded his CPM® in 1979 and was a member of the IREM National Faculty for eight years. A Senior Instructor member of the NAAEI Faculty, he leads the Advanced Facilitator Training course, is the co-author of “Outstanding Facilitation…