[nagdu] issue with building

[Jenine Stanley]

Hi Marsha, 

This is probably one of the most common housing issues out there for service
animal handlers. 

What I'm about to say is a little complicated but it's what I've been told
by folks at DOJ and HUD. 

When it comes to housing, there are two sets of regulations that apply, the
ADA, and the Fair Housing Act, depending on who owns your building. 

Though they cannot reject you or ban your service animal outright, any other
requests on your part, such as being able to relieve the dog in a certain
place, are "reasonable accommodations." 

When you are challenged about such things, it is important to state what you
want and why you want it and that you are doing so as a "reasonable
accommodation" because of your service animal. 

It sounds really, well, paternalistic that you have to state this as an
accommodation when that should be obvious, but what DOJ and HUD have found
is that since there are no laws that directly cover every situation involved
in housing, the concepts of reasonable accommodation come into play to cover
the basic uses of housing. 

In plain English, here's what I'd advise you to do. 

1. Write a letter to the HOA stating that you have a service animal, a guide
dog trained by (name the school). You have been relieving your dog at
(describe the area) , because (state reasons like proximity to your
apartment, safety, etc.),for the past (state time frame). You are requesting
"a reasonable accommodation" to relieve your dog in this area as you have
been doing. 

2. You may want to locate the HUD Fair Housing office in your area and talk
with them about filing a complaint. 

One of the things that HUD states quite clearly in its documentation about
reasonable accommodation is that you don't have to put it in writing and you
don't even have to say the phrase reasonable accommodation, but it does help
in the whole mediation process. You have already asked for such an
accommodation indirectly with your actions. This imho is enough to go to HUD
and file a complaint. 

I would also cc any communication to someone at NAGDU and/or your school so
that the HOA can see how serious this can get. All of my citations are on my
other computer, but if you do a search of Fair Housing Act and Reasonable
Accommodations, you'll find a lot of material. 

I'd wager that Seeing eye also has a lot of material on the advocacy portion
of its web site.