Fair housing officer: HUD will limit enforcement of emotional-support animal complaints, local protections remain

Fair housing officer Sabrina Roman told the commission June 15 that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued a memorandum narrowing the agency''s administrative enforcement to animals trained to perform disability-related assistance. "HUD recently issued a memorandum announcing a change in how the agency is going to enforce the housing discrimination complaints," Roman said, adding, "it will pursue administrative enforcement actions only in cases that involve animals that are trained to perform disability related assistance." Roman said that means "emotional support animal cases will no longer be heard" by HUD''s administrative process, though she emphasized the Fair Housing Act itself has not changed and landlords still must consider reasonable-accommodation requests.

Roman told commissioners the shift leaves more responsibility for local resolution of many animal-related disputes. She urged landlords and tenants to use case-by-case review of accommodation requests and noted Connecticut is pushing conversations about breed discrimination by insurers. "If the animal does provide a service, in essence''an example people say is like it could be a pony''if it provides a service, then it's providing the service that it needs to provide," Roman said to illustrate the law's focus on function rather than species.

Roman also outlined recent, more-prosaic work her office handles: calls this month about children playing outside in the heat and neighbor complaints, and disputes about indoor air and ventilation when residents have severe allergies. She described one multi-family case where staff reviewed lease terms and mediated between a parent and landlord; the parties agreed on a tarp and water toys to reduce mud and disturbance rather than pursue eviction. "We kind of just came to conclusion like is there a way that we can get a tarp that maybe we could put some [water toys] on," Roman said, summarizing the informal remedy they arranged.

Commission members raised practical enforcement questions, including whether Norwalk has any ordinance that would prohibit children playing outside; Roman said she was not aware of such a time-limited prohibition in Norwalk and offered to research the city's history on the issue. The group also discussed noise-ordinance thresholds and the procedural steps required before enforcement.

Roman said the office is preparing a joint proposal with Connecticut Fair Housing to submit to the Connecticut Affordable Housing Conference titled "From Policy to Practice: Building Housing Choice Through Fair Housing Advocacy and Local Action." She said the proposal is due July 31 and applicants will be notified by Aug. 28, and that she would seek to interview commission members about their role in local ordinance work if the proposal is accepted.

The report concluded with commissioners noting outreach ideas, including social-media messaging about noise ordinance procedures for tenants and landlords during summer months.