A Gramercy Park co-op has agreed to pay $165,000 to a tenant/shareholder who was denied permission to live with her emotional support animals. The tenant, who had been a resident since the late 1990s, kept parrots as pets without incident until 2015 when a neighbor complained about alleged noise and called the Department of Environment Protection to investigate 15 times. The DEP did not issue any violations.

In March 2016, the tenant asked the co-op for permission to keep her parrots as support animals under the Fair Housing Act, which states reasonable accommodations must be provided for equal housing opportunities for people with disabilities. The co-op denied the tenant’s request and instead started eviction proceedings.

The tenant alleged to have suffered emotional harm during the eviction proceedings and left her apartment in July 2016. The co-op however continued with eviction proceedings until 2024, even after the tenant moved out. In May 2018, the tenant filed a complaint with HUD, stating the eviction proceedings violated her fair housing rights. During the HUD investigation, the tenant obtained an offer to buy her apartment for $467,500; however, the co-op rejected the tenant’s request to sell her apartment. This rejection prolonged the dispute and was ultimately determined by HUD as retaliation.

In January 2021, the HUD investigation found probable cause to believe the co-op had violated the FHA. The Co-op decided to challenge the “probable cause” determination and litigate the case in Federal Court. Ultimately, the co-op agreed to settle the case; the settlement approved by the Federal Judge required the Co-op to:
– Pay the tenant $165,000 in damages
– Offer $585,000 to purchase her shares in the co-operative
– If the unit sale does not go through, the co-op must provide additional accommodations and the right to sublet the unit for 10 years
– Create a reasonable accommodation policy regarding requests for assistance animals
– Comply with recordkeeping requirements to ensure that its agents and officers are knowledgeable about and comply with the provisions of the FHA
– Allow the U.S. government to monitor the compliance of the agreement
– Dismiss the eviction proceedings against the tenant in court

This is the largest recovery the Department of Justice has ever obtained for a person with disabilities whose housing provider denied them their right to have an assistance animal. This outcome should prompt all housing providers to consider carefully whether their emotional support animal policies and procedures comply with federal law.