In the dynamic landscape of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) growth, especially for those eyeing international expansion, the importance of understanding local laws cannot be understated. For employers in the United States, compliance with laws concerning emotional support animals may appear to be a peripheral concern when placed alongside issues of internationalization, but they are nevertheless a legal obligation that is relevant to organizational expansion. Indeed, such state and federal laws are relevant to any SME looking to scale up from a local to national footprint.

But what do laws regarding emotional support animals have to do with the success of an SME? Several things. The most crucial being that, within the continuum of issues an SME deals with, legal compliance is foundational to any other operations, as it underpins everything the operation needs to follow in order to bring a product or service to market. If the foundation isn’t correctly in place, then it doesn’t matter how great the product or service is. Of course, that’s an overly simplistic way of looking at the matter, so it must be expounded upon.

The Obstacles

For example, when discussing the legal foundation of a business, it is important to consider all of the laws within the landscape of commercial activities. In addition to legal compliance, individual state and federal laws dictate how organizations may operate, while other laws determine how employees and customers interact with an organization. Thus, these particular laws might shape an organization’s talents or resources as they impact overall development and expansion. We will examine each of the aforementioned aspects further in-depth, but we should first look at the main details of the Minnesota emotional support animal housing laws.

Minnesota Emotional Support Animal Housing Laws

According to an article from KB Netgear Router, “Although the Fair Housing Act qualifies emotional support animals as a reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities, some state and local laws go even further by providing protection to emotional support animals and emotional support. Many states have emotional support animal laws that allow the use of emotional support animals in many public places and require emotional support animal training. These laws extend the Fair Housing reasonable accommodation requirements to landlords by charging them with additional responsibilities.”

Essentially, these emotional support animal housing laws form the foundation that courts and governmental authorities utilize to determine enforcement and interpretation of reasonable accommodation provisions. They also play a role in how the laws impact local, state, and federal authorities. This, in turn, impacts how organizations develop and utilize internal compliance with emotional support animal housing laws. For example, if there are regulations by which a municipality might interpret and implement such laws, then organizations should be aware of those regulations.

In addition, the laws ultimately reflect how disabilities are defined in the context of emotional support animals. For example, if emotional support animals are defined more narrowly by an individual state or municipality, then the definition may still stretch to incorporate a reasonable accommodation. In either case, accommodations have been expanded over the last 10-20 years to include a growing number of disabilities.

With respect to their design and implementation, emotional support animal housing laws have had a wide-reaching and profound impact on the lives of Lynne Richards, a journalist who writes that – “It can be difficult to find reasonable housing when you are a resident with an emotional support animal. I have known and interacted with many residents who had to leave their home because of their emotional support property, even though their service animal was perfectly well-mannered. Who needs this hassle?”

The Impact on SMEs

Beyond the legal minutia and emotional toll such situations represent, emotional support animal housing laws also impact an organization’s employees in the following ways:

• The organization has to spend time and effort accommodating employee needs, including training for certain issues, especially if the organization is one that has locations in multiple states or municipalities.
• The organization may have to compensate for the time spent training, planning, and accommodating protection measures to address issues related to emotional support animals.
• The organization may have to account for lost productivity, such as lost hours or days when employees must train for emotional support animals.
• The organization may have to re-allocate its talent pool to cover for essential operations; potential employee misallocation is extremely relevant when one considers that the top 20% of employees are responsible for over 80% of an organization’s output.

The Returns

Given the challenges associated with emotional support animal housing laws, what are the returns on investment that might make them worthwhile?

While emotional support animal housing laws might seem like peripheral concerns, any expansion project must address each issue. For the reasons delineated above, emotional support animal housing laws are not peripheral concerns for SMEs. They are issues that must be handled appropriately and with careful consideration. If not, the emotional and financial costs of resolving disputes, as well as the potential loss of customers or employees can be extremely limiting, especially for an SME seeking expansion into new markets.