HUD New Guidelines 2024: Service/Assistance animals and Reasonable Accommodation

As of the date of the issuance of this guidance, FHA complaints concerning denial of reasonable accommodations and disability access comprise almost 60% of all FHA complaints and those involving requests for reasonable accommodations for assistance animals are significantly increasing.

This guidance is provided as a tool for housing providers and persons with a disability to use at their discretion and provides a set of best practices for addressing requests for reasonable accommodations to keep animals in housing where individuals with disabilities reside or seek to reside. e will discuss HUD’s new ruling on verification of service or assistance animals.

It covers the questions to ask in determining if the animal is a service animal or an assistive animal. The seminar covers the new time frame for answering requests for a reasonable accommodation for and animal. Also covered are the various questions concerning breed, weight, type and size of the animal. The other important topic is verifications of the need for the service or assistance an animal to prove a nexus between the disability and the need for an animal of some type. Also covered will be the methods used to verify need.

In this program, you’ll learn how to:

• Discussed will be a review of the protected classes.
• Time frames for decision on reasonable accommodation requests
• Difference between service and assistance animals
• What questions may be asked about disability
• Definition of disability when concerning accommodation
• Online animal verifications

Benefits: This is a real-world course. It answers questions on the difference between service and assisted animals, how to verify the need for the animal  and all about reasonable accommodation.

Who Should Attend:

• Property Owners
• Property Managers
• Housing Authority Staff
• Compliance Staff
• Maintenance Staff

Ask a question at the Q & A session following the live event and get advice pertaining to your situation, straight from our expert speaker.

Paul Flogstad

Paul has been involved in the real estate industry for the past 38 years. After college graduation was in law enforcement for 4 years. From that point on, he has been involved in sales, construction, project management, appraisal, mortgage consulting and brokerage, property management and property management consulting/training.

Most recently, he was a consultant for affordable, multi-housing properties in 22 different states. This involved properties in HUD, Rural Development and Tax Credit programs. In this role he supported managers by training, compliance, budgeting, developing policy and procedures as well as creating successful marketing strategies. Previously he was a regional manager for a large property management company in South Dakota.

For over twenty years was involved in appraisal of residential, multi-family, farm and commercial properties throughout the Midwest.

He holds numerous professional property management designations and currently holds the prestigious RHM designation from the National Center for Housing Management.

In 2007 he formed Property Management Solutions. In this capacity, he provides training and consulting services nationwide to owners, management companies, multi-housing associations, as well as state and federal agencies.

He currently serves as the Fair Housing Ombudsman for the State of South Dakota and is considered a nationally recognized expert in fair housing. He is also a national trainer specializing in tax credit properties for the National Center of Housing Management.