Pet Inclusive Housing: Roscoe's Law leads the way. People + Paws Coalition for Affordable Housing is the Pets in Housing Act known as 'Roscoe's Law'
- Jennifer Eileen
- Aug 10
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 10
In this timely interview, learn about pet-inclusive housing. This is rental housing that welcomes all cats and dogs as companions, regardless of their breed, weight or size. Pet-inclusive housing does not have exorbitant financial barriers, including non-refundable fees or high monthly pet rent. Campaigns like “Opportunity Starts at Home” has found that realistically only 9% of all rental housing can be considered pet-inclusive based on the standards shared above. Nationally, around 14% of owners who surrender their pets to animal shelters cite underlying housing insecurity. Why is pet-inclusive housing so important? For people, the health and social benefits of animal guardianship have long been established. The companionship of an animal can decrease the risk of depression, anxiety and other ailments and improve a person’s physical, mental and emotional health. Housing related issues are one of the top reasons for pet relinquishment. By addressing those barriers we can make housing a lot more inclusive. Learn more in this interview with Human World for Animals and DC Humane Rescue Alliance. Read highlights of the interview following here:
March 25th Roscoe’s Law passed.
Roscoe's Law was introduced as the Pets In Housing Act and we refer to it as Roscoe's Law in honor and tribute to the late rescue dog of the bill’s champion Council Member Robert White. The bill really tried to address 3 needs for people who have to surrender a pet or who are struggling financially but also trying to like get along the through line through people's housing experience. So the legislation addresses the exorbitant fees that renters experience, it addresses the lack of housing opportunities for people who are experiencing homelessness, if you have a pet. Right now we have no pet friendly homeless shelter in DC and so we have a huge community who is like deeply connected to their animal that is family who have nowhere to go and that third component is really for all animal lovers especially those of us who have rescue animals or mixed breeds were those breeds that are considered -- dangerous breeds or you know prohibited breeds so those three pillars or three communities that we were trying to address through this legislation will be benefited from it.
Tell us about the efforts in Virginia.
We haven't passed something yet in Virginia but we're working on it that's right so huge success in DC really groundbreaking and instrumental too. I think the movement more largely and in Virginia the last few legislative sessions we've worked on bills alongside a lot of our colleagues in the animal welfare space and some real champion volunteers in the in the state to address a lot of the components that Roscoe law does so I'm trying to address more affordable housing through pet fees taking a closer look at pet restrictions and subsidized housing specifically and just making pet inclusive housing a lot more accessible for Virginians, so while we haven't seen the bill move over the finish line yet there it's introduction and discussion in in in session and in committees has really helped illuminate the issue and bringing it to the forefront of the minds of the people who are passing laws in our state.
This is really unregulated space
Roscoe's Law has a few different things one it eliminated non refundable fees it's set a cap of your pet deposit of 15% of your monthly rent right so instead of saying you know allowing that you know amount to be without a ceiling we now have a financial or percentage cap and if you have dogs it's capped at 1% of your monthly rent per dog all other animals it's capped at 1% in total so if you had two dogs you'd be paying 2% of your monthly rent in pet fees and if you had like 4 cats it's still just 1% so it's kind of a fair way to assess the amount of potential wear and tear on a building - like larger dogs or larger animals such as dogs might cause more wear and tear those who go outside of the building especially when you're taking them out on walks might be doing more wear and tear on the building. We talked to 1 legislative staffer who he was charged pet rent for his two gerbils that shared a cage
Ending Breed Discrimination: Any dog is deserving of a safe and stable and loving home
I'm excited that we're all very much on as it stands now on the same page and excited to get this missing component back on the table.
What we've done to support this type of legislation in the past is to really hone in on the fallacies of of certain dogs are more dangerous than others --there isn't data to support that and the list that many of the insurance providers use is outdated and sort of born out of a study that was debunked by its authors and noted as unreliable and flawed so it's I think a practice that is is wholly unsupported by the industry and their traditional ways to measure risk and so in the states where this type of legislation is passed in the in other places it's been transformative for the for those renters and homeowners to be able to know that they are secure and safe when after paying-- you know substantial amount of money to protect their assets and and to have a beloved who just might happen to be the wrong breed, right perceived wrong perceived received wrong breed.
Homeless With Pets
It's very heartbreaking to think that for those who feel excluded from society who feel as though they don't really have anyone in their corner who feel alone that that pet and that is is truly family and in a lot of ways a lifeline and I would personally like never want to be separated from my animal even if my housing was compromised so it makes all the sense in the world that people will decline access to shelter and those wrap around services if they can't take their family member with them
Our coalition the People In Paws Coalition For Affordable Housing -- we have large national nonprofits we have small nonprofits we even had like private companies that joined in support of this effort and we were also focused in our missions for animal well-being but it was really that like human component that Friendship Place brought to the table that was so important and that's also what legislators care about ultimately unfortunately animals can't vote.
For More Information, watch Pet Info Cafe Episode 40 Pet Inclusive Housing available on the Video page of this website.
Pet Info Cafe thanks:
Kelly Whittier, Director of Public Affairs at the Humane Rescue Alliance
Jessica Simpson, Senior Specialist, Public Policy, Companion Animals
Humane World for Animals
