Emotional support animals and agoraphobia
By condition
One of the conditions where a housing accommodation does the most good, because home is where the condition concentrates life.
Why housing is the right accommodation here
Agoraphobia narrows life toward home, which means the housing situation is not one part of the problem but most of it. Losing housing, or being forced to choose between housing and the animal, is a far more serious event for somebody with agoraphobia than the same choice would be for most people. That is the substance of a reasonable accommodation argument, and it is worth stating plainly in the request.
A diagnosis is not the test and does not decide this. The question is whether the impairment substantially limits a major life activity, and whether this animal alleviates a symptom or effect of it. Both halves have to hold, a licensed clinician decides, and the answer can be no.
What the animal is reported to do
Two things come up repeatedly: making the home tolerable rather than isolating, and extending the range at which leaving is possible, because the animal has to be walked or taken out. The second is often the most functionally important thing in the whole request and is regularly left out of the documentation.
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Common questions
- Does agoraphobia qualify?
- It frequently substantially limits major life activities, which is the test. A clinician still has to reach that view about you and conclude the animal alleviates a symptom of it.