Feds Sue Another Landlord for Discriminating Against an Emotional Support Animal
Federal housing officials are once again accusing a landlord of illegal housing discrimination for not renting to someone with an emotional support animal.
According to a complaint filed yesterday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), landlord Jack Cohen, who owns 40 rental units in Manchester, New Hampshire, declined to show an available apartment to two prospective tenants when they failed to produce documentation verifying a medical need for their emotional support dogs.
The prospective tenants, a mother and daughter (whose names are redacted in the complaint), had both received a recommendation from doctors for an emotional support animal to cope with their diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder.
After Cohen declined to show them the unit, the two unnamed complainants filed a complaint with HUD in August 2023, alleging that he’d discriminated against them on the basis of their disability.
In the charging documents filed yesterday, HUD agreed. The department alleges that Cohen violated the Fair Housing Act—which bars discrimination on the basis of disability—by refusing to show them the unit or let them apply and by requiring documentation that he doesn’t require of other prospective tenants.
This is not the first time that HUD has accused property owners of disability discrimination for not allowing emotional support animals on their properties.
In September 2023, HUD sued two New York landlords for refusing to make an exception to their “no pets” policy
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