Co-op City management is going to have to square off with the big dogs.
RiverBay Corporation, which operates the massive housing complex, has been slapped with a discrimination charge from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for allegedly denying one of its residents his right to keep an emotional-support dog in his apartment.
Co-op City has a strict policy against pets. Federal law, however, requires that regardless of an owner’s policy, any tenant is allowed to keep a service animal, such as a seeing-eye dog, or emotional-support animal, if recommended by a doctor.
The dog owner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, got his chihuahua-whippet mix from a pound in early 2008. He suffers from chronic depression and got the animal, named Figgy Newton, at the suggestion of his psychiatrist, in lieu or in conjunction with medication.
“I don’t know how I ever did it without him,” the complainant, a retired corrections officer, said. “One of the things about my condition is I isolate myself. The tactile stimulation I get from walking and petting him and having him as a companion is something I really can’t describe.”
Figgy Newton has been certified as a service animal by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The complainant was aware of the no-pets policy in Co-op city when he moved there in 2002. He requested a reasonable accommodation for the emotional-support dog in January, 2008 and included a letter from his psychiatrist.
The charge says his request was denied by RiverBay that April.
He filed a complaint with HUD in November, 2008. After a lengthy determination process during which it evaluated the complainant’s claims, HUD decided to take legal action.
“The law requires that someone is provided reasonable accommodation if they have a disability, but they (RiverBay) didn’t believe it was necessary or warranted,” said Jo-Ann Frey, the director of HUD’s New York/New Jersey regional Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
The case will be heard by a HUD administrative law judge. The complainant or RiverBay could elect to have the case tried in federal court as well.
RiverBay faces tens of thousands in fines and could be forced to grant the complainant a reasonable accommodation.
The charge also says that RiverBay attempted to evict the complainant from Co-op City in September, 2008 for having the animal in his apartment. But a housing court technicality allowed him to keep the dog since he already had it for over 90 days and the eviction request was rescinded.
It alleges, however, his rent checks were not accepted by the management company for much of 2008 and he received frequent visits from the complex’s security guards to question him about the dog.
He still lives in Co-op City, with the dog.
“We are working with HUD in evaluating our accommodation policy,” said lawyer Jennifer Stewart of firm Smith, Buss and Jacobs, which is representing RiverBay in the case.
“Co-op City has one of the highest concentrations of disabled tenants in the New York City area. We’re committed to accommodating to the fullest extent…it’s an ongoing process evaluating how we can best do it.”
