The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3 - 51

Animal Housing

urban Development. the court thus ordered
that the fha be applied to university housing
in this case (u.s. v. university of nebraska at
Kearney, 2013).
two years later, the courts created a consent
order that required unK to pay $140,000 into
a settlement fund, change its policies on esas,
train its employees to follow the new policies,
and submit annual compliance reports (u.s. v.
university of nebraska at Kearney, 2015). although the ruling that a university apartment
was considered a dwelling did not legally create
a precedent, this case is seen as the beginning
of a shift toward requiring universities to be
fha compliant (Bewley, 2015; hope, 2016;
powers, 2014).

U.S. v. Kent State University (2014). Jacqueline and Brandon luke, a married couple,
moved into allerton apartments, an apartment complex owned by Kent state university (Ksu), as students at the beginning of
the fall 2008 semester. although Jacqueline
suffered from severe anxiety, she was able to
manage her symptoms for the first semester
because her schedule often matched that of
her husband. When that was no longer the
case in the spring, she started suffering severe
panic attacks when at home alone. in response
to this, a psychologist at Ksu's university
health services prescribed her a dog as an
esa, but when Jacqueline submitted an application to allow her esa into her apartment, it
was denied in December. the couple acquired
a dog that month despite this, and found that
the magnitude and frequency of Jacqueline's
anxiety and panic attacks had significantly decreased. When university officials discovered
the dog, they told the lukes they had two days
to remove the animal. as a result of this com-

munication, the couple moved to pet-friendly
housing, and requested that the fair housing
advocates association, a nonprofit organization, investigate the incident. on feb. 19,
2010, Jacqueline luke and the fhaa each
submitted complaints to the ohio Civil rights
Commission, which turned over the investigation to the Department of housing and urban
Development (huD) that november. huD
claimed that Ksu had used discriminatory
housing policies, and sued the university on
behalf of both Jacqueline and Brandon luke
for compensatory relief (u.s. v. Kent state
university, 2014).
Ksu attempted to argue that charges
should be dropped, claiming that the ambiguous nature of the application of the fha to
dormitories should give the university officials
qualified immunity (u.s. v. Kent state univer-

According to HUD guidelines,
housing providers under the
FHA who receive requests for
accommodations for assistance
animals are required to consider
whether the individual has
a disability that significantly
affects his or her ability to
function in life, and whether the
animal assists the individual in
mitigating that disability.

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3

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