At HARP we understand that having furry family members can make it much harder to find good-quality affordable housing. Use our resources to find housing assistance programs, identify insurance companies that do not discriminate by breed, build a pet resume, and learn about assistance animals (Service dogs and ESAs).
Most landlords with no-pet policies don’t hate animals! They just want to protect themselves from liability and their property from damage. If you are working with an individual landlord, they are often willing to be flexible if they think that you and your pets pose minimal risk to the property.
Show your landlord that your pet will not be a problem by making sure they are up to date on vaccines and spayed or neutered (our low-cost clinic can help!), and by creating a pet resume with references – especially previous landlords! Use our Microsoft Template here or create your pet’s resume online.
It can be harder to get around breed restrictions because those are often imposed on landlords by insurance companies. Let your landlord know if your renter’s insurance policy covers liability for your dog or ask if purchasing supplemental dog bite liability insurance would make a difference.
Let your landlord know that the research says pets are good for business! According to the Pet Inclusive Housing Report, on average, residents in pet-friendly housing stay 21% longer than those in non-pet-friendly housing. This translates to residents staying about 10 additional months. In addition, 83% of owner/operators say pet-friendly vacancies are filled faster.
Fewer than 10% of all pets cause damage of any kind, and only 2% cause damage that requires a security deposit deduction. The average cost of repairs when pets do cause damage is only $210, which is more than covered by the average pet rent and fees. For more information on the benefits of pet-friendly housing check out the Pet Inclusive Housing Initiative
For further assistance please contact the admissions team via our Pet Helpline at 412-345-0348 or pethelpline@humaneanimalrescue.org