Emotional Support Animals
SOU Disability Resources
SOU Disability Resources
Emotional Support Animals (ESA) are housing accommodations that are outlined by the Fair Housing Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. They state that an ESA is:
An animal that provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified effects of a person’s disability. An assistance animal is not a pet.
An ESA may be necessary for a person with a disability to have equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling, including public and common use spaces.
To request an ESA as a reasonable accommodation, you will need to contact the Disability Resources office to start the process. Upon reaching out to Disability Resources you will be prompted to register by completing an AIM application. Prior to meeting with an Accommodations Specialist you will need to:
The following documentation will be required as well in order to complete the process and bring your animal to the campus:
As soon as Disability Resources receives the aforementioned documentation a decision will be provided within 10 business days and our University Housing staff will be officially notified via email. From there, University Housing will contact you for the next steps to be followed.
Some websites sell certificates, registrations, and licensing documents for assistance animals to anyone who answers certain questions or participates in a short interview and pays a fee. Under the Fair Housing Act, a housing provider may request reliable documentation when an individual requesting a reasonable accommodation has a disability and disability-related need for an accommodation that are not obvious or otherwise known. In HUD’s experience, such documentation from the internet is not, by itself, sufficient to reliably establish that an individual has a non-observable disability or disability-related need for an assistance animal.
HUD Assistance Animal Policy
HUD Memo Re: ESAs
SOU housing Policy
Service Animal vs. Emotional Support Animals (Bookmark)
Questions about Service Animals?
For more information or if you have any question contact Disability Resources at (541) 552-6213 or by email: dr@sou.edu.