A local lawsuit highlights how difficult it is for UW students to find housing accommodations with a service or emotional support animal in Laramie.
“I am really surprised by the outcome,” Kate McLaughlin, Director of UW Disability Support Services, said. “Out here in Wyoming, there are a lot of private landlords who often say ‘No, we don’t accept ESAs’ so I was always kind of interested to see if somebody would press that.”
With a student population that takes up almost a third of Laramie’s population, the rental market can be competitive and a challenge, especially for those with service or emotional support animals.
On March 25, a Laramie woman filed suit against two landlords for denying her application to their apartments after a discussion over her ESA (Emotional Support Animal) revealed it was not labeled a service animal.
“An ESA can be any animal, as long as a provider says that it helps a person manage their disability,” Casey Wood, Assistant Director of UW Disability Support Services, said. “To manage the life of an ESA provides structure is so an individual can manage their own needs since it provides structure they don’t have otherwise.”
According to the Cowboy Daily, the landlords sourced the Americans with Disabilities Act and Wyoming law as their right to refuse service since the animal in question was not a verified service dog.
“I think that it’s completely unfair to those that are in need,” Manuel Gonzalez, a Physiology major, said. “Not everyone can function without a companion.”
Gonzalez speaks on the behalf of his partner who qualifies for an ESA, but does not have the means to access one, much less find appropriate housing accomodations.
“There are people like my partner that have separation anxiety, some have it worse,” Gonzalez said.
However, according to the Fair Housing Act, both ESAs and service dogs qualify as assistance animals, and any refusal to provide rental housing is direct discrimination against a person(s) with disabilities.
“The ESA piece, as it pertains to rental property, is usually defined differently by different state legislators,” McLaughlin said. “So, like many civil rights legislations, it takes someone putting in a complaint to set a precedent as to what’s expected under the law.”
Although UW policy permits both types of assistance animals in the dormitories and apartments, students with these companions encounter many challenges when looking for housing off-campus.
“When students come to college, nowadays, they are much more cognitive and comfortable with their diagnosis,” McLaughlin said.
One challenge students encounter when looking for housing is the paperwork and qualifications required to prove the legitimacy of their service animals.
“The difference is a service animal is specifically trained to perform some task related to the individual’s disability, and that is different in an ESA which is understood to provide a general support emotionally but they do not necessarily undergo training,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin also said that while this lawsuit will not have a direct impact on UW policy, it does bring light to the struggles of students with disabilities in finding housing accommodations.
Wood also said that recently, the collaboration between DSS and Housing & Residence Life has been streamlined to make applications for students with ESA and service animals easier.
“Away from animal housing exemptions, we have tried to give it some structure by putting in deadlines around the time of room assignment,” Wood said. “We try to find out in our process about whether their roommates are okay with the presence of an animal.”
